Pastor Maldonado set the fastest lap in the Q1 session in Valencia with a track temperature of 44 degrees. The Venezuelan was a few hundreths ahead of the Force Indians of Paul Di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg, with Nico Rosberg fourth ahead of Lewis Hamilton, Sergio Perez, Felipe Massa, Fernando Alonso, Michael Schumacher and Bruno Senna.
The big news was that Mark Webber missed the cut, having been bounced out by a great lap from Heikki Kovalainen in the improving Caterham. Also out were Jean-Eric Vergne, Vitaly Petrov, the two HRTs and Charles Pic. Timo Glock is missing the entire session because of stomach bug.
Inspired Joe!