At the Formula 1 free practice on Friday, in front of his home crowd,  Ferrari's Fernando Alonso performed far superior to the field.   

 Fernando's team mate, Felipe Massa, continued his season long struggle and was off pace again today.  Talking about disappointing seasons, another sub-par outing ensued for the seven time world champion Michael Schumacher who finished the session seven spots behind his team mate Nico Rosberg.  Nico had a good showing in fourth less than a half a second behind the leader.

In the McLaren team mate battles, Lewis Hamilton got the best of team mate Jenson Button.  Lewis looked much better than the .3 second differential between the two McLaren boys.  RedBull appears to be the team to beat, again showing dominance in practice.  Vettel came in second today while Webber took third place in the second practice session today.

Also note worthy is Kubica's pace in the Renault.   Robert was less than .6 seconds off the pace and finished the practice session in 6th place.  This is note worthy because he bested cars from much stronger teams, namely Massa's Ferrari, Schummy's Mercedes, & Jenson's McLaren.  Well done Robert!