Heikki Kovalainen finished quickest in practice for the first time this season to suggest McLaren might avoid being also-rans during the Turkish Grand Prix.

The team had a miserable time in Monaco two weeks ago with Kovalainen crashing out after seven laps and world champion Lewis Hamilton finishing 12th and a lap down on race winner Jenson Button.

But after Hamilton concluded today's initial 90-minute run second quickest behind Williams' Nico Rosberg, Kovalainen went one better in what was a tricky afternoon session for the majority of the drivers.

The Finn's time of one minute 28.841sec for the Istanbul circuit was also the best of the day, bettering Rosberg's effort by just 0.111sec.

Kovalainen said: “At first, the car was quite difficult to drive but we worked hard during the session and I think we found a very good balance.”

Fernando Alonso finished a mere six thousandths of a second behind Kovalainen in his Renault, followed by a return to form for Robert Kubica in his BMW Sauber.

Williams' Kazuki Nakajima was fourth, with the Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel fifth, despite the fact he only managed four laps.

The 21-year-old German was forced to stop on track after feeling what he described as “a huge vibration” in his car, diagnosed as a driveshaft failure.

It resulted in Vettel helping the marshals push his car off the circuit before it was returned to the garage. Jarno Trulli was sixth in his Toyota, another team looking to up the ante after their miserable Monaco showing, with Rosberg seventh.

Brawn GP's Rubens Barrichello was eighth, with Mark Webber ninth in his Red Bull and Nelson Piquet 10th for Renault. Felipe Massa, who has won this race for the last three years from pole, was down in 11th, followed by British pairing Button and Hamilton.

It proved to be Button's second-worst practice session of the year, although this was because Brawn used the session to test their race set-up.

As for Hamilton, he spun twice in the space of seven minutes, one of many to struggle on soft tyres as there were a number of off-track moments throughout the afternoon.

Meanwhile, Formula One teams angered by the imposition of a £40million budget cap have explored the possibility of running their own world championship in opposition to the official series.

Toyota president John Howett ramped up the tension in the stand-off between the Formula One Teams' Association (FOTA) and FIA president Max Mosley by insisting a breakaway championship could take place in 2010.

Howett, vice-chairman of FOTA, said: “I don't think we are looking for confrontation, but we have to have a broad option plan in place. Certainly, to look at an alternative series has to be one.”

Howett was responding to Mosley's blunt dismissal of conditions attached to the entries of FOTA's nine teams for 2010.

Mosley said: “I say to them, If you want to draw up your own rules, then you can organise your own championship'.”