Pastor Maldonado came from the back of a disappointing Canadian Grand Prix to set the early pace during the first practice session the 2012 European Grand Prix in Valencia.
The Venezuelan driver was posted a laptime of 1m40.890s early in the session, just 0.083s of World Champion and Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel in 2nd.
Mark Webber went 3rd fastest in the sister Red Bull, closely followed by McLaren’s Jenson Button and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso.
Paul Di Resta clocked the 6th fastest time, while Lewis Hamilton had to settle for 8th, sandwiched by the two Mercedes drivers Michael Schumacher in 7th and Nico Rosberg in 9th.
Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen completed the top 10 in a session that saw the 9 fastest drivers within 3 tenths of each other.
Pos Driver Team Time 1. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1m40.890s 2. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m40.973s + 0.083 3. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m40.984s + 0.094 4. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m40.994s + 0.104 5. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m41.065s + 0.175 6. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m41.105s + 0.215 7. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m41.117s + 0.227 8. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m41.158s + 0.268 9. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m41.182s + 0.292 10. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 1m41.620s + 0.730 11. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m41.784s + 0.894 12. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m41.838s + 0.948 13. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m41.861s + 0.971 14. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m42.109s + 1.219 15. Jules Bianchi Force India-Mercedes 1m42.175s + 1.285 16. Valtteri Bottas Williams-Renault 1m42.299s + 1.409 17. Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 1m42.442s + 1.552 18. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m42.758s + 1.868 19. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m42.777s + 1.887 20. Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 1m43.209s + 2.319 21. Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 1m44.173s + 3.283 22. Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 1m44.996s + 4.106 23. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1m45.120s + 4.230 24. Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 1m45.338s + 4.448