VALENCIA, Spain -- Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen set the pace in practice Friday for the European Grand Prix, with drivers getting their first experience on the new Valencia street circuit.
The Finnish world champion had a best lap of 1 minute, 39.477 seconds on the 3.4-mile course to edge Renault driver Fernando Alonso, who was 0.02 behind.
Honda's Jenson Button was third in 1:39.546, while Ferrari's Felipe Massa and overall leader Lewis Hamilton of McLaren rounded out the top five.
"Today, our weekend got off to a good start, but obviously it is far too early to say where we are compared to the opposition," Raikkonen said. "The setup we have found today is not bad, but there is still plenty of room for improvement."
The Sunday event comes after a three-week break following the Hungarian GP. Hamilton leads the standings with 62 points, five ahead of Raikkonen and eight in front of Massa.
Several drivers struggled on the unfamiliar circuit, with Massa and Nelson Piquet Jr. among those who veered off the track. Nico Rosberg spun his Williams when going through a turn, and narrowly avoided crashing into Red Bull's Mark Webber.
Alonso raced the most laps of the session with 39, while Raikkonen covered 30.
Hamilton was also optimistic after clocking 1:39.712.
"Considering the dustiness of the track, we made a very promising start on the setup this morning," Hamilton said. "We were able to go quicker on each run without changing too much and we took a very good baseline into the afternoon session."
Later Friday, Alonso was fined $14,800 for crossing the white line that marks the entry into the pit lane. Red Bull's David Coulthard was fined $3,250 for exceeding the speed limit in the pit lane, and Hamilton was fined $7,400 for showing up three minutes late for a press conference on Thursday.
The drivers have a final practice session Saturday before the qualifier to decide pole position for Sunday's race.
