Sutil sets practice pace

The Force India driver was an impressive sixth quickest in both of yesterday's free practice sessions but his elevation to the summit today was thanks in no small part to a major engine failure suffered by Red Bull Racing's Sebastian Vettel on the half-hour mark.

The German's Renault engine spewed a long trail of oil onto the track during its death throes, forcing race control to red-flag the session to clear up the spillage. While the cars were unable to take to the track, the clock continued to tick down on the hour-long session, which eventually resumed with five minutes remaining.

McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen soon demonstrated the problems facing the drivers when he came upon the concrete dust which had been put down to cover the line of oil, which ran from turns 18 to 24.

The Finn kicked up huge clouds of white powder as he passed over the affected areas of the track, but as the dust quickly cleared the times began to tumble.

Kovalainen went quickest despite only having limited running prior to the red flag, while Robert Kubica (BMW Sauber) and Kazuki Nakajima (Williams) both took turns in top spot before Sutil put up the best time of the weekend so far - one minute and 39.143 seconds.

Nakajima ended the session in second, ahead of Kubica, while Kovalainen was fourth. British pair Jenson Button (Brawn GP) and Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) finished seventh and eighth respectively.

Ferrari new boy Luca Badoer continued his tentative form at the wheel of the F60 as he brought up the rear in 20th place, a second slower than 19th-placed Jaime Alguersuari (Toro Rosso).

Renault debutant Romain Grosjean continued to impress by taking 10th, five places ahead of team-mate Fernando Alonso.