Webber fastest in Spanish GP practice

Barcelona: Red Bull's Mark Webber was back on the pace in Spanish Grand Prix practice on Friday at the track that ignited the Australian's title challenge last year.

Webber topped the Formula One timesheets in both sessions before and after lunch on a bright day at the Circuit de Catalunya, setting his best time of one minute 22.470 seconds in the afternoon.

While Red Bull enjoyed a one-two in the morning, Webber was run much closer by McLaren's Lewis Hamilton in the second session when the Briton split the Red Bulls with a lap just 0.039 off the best time.

McLaren have brought some significant updates to Barcelona, as have others, after a disappointing showing in Turkey and the initial signs were positive.

Webber's victory in Barcelona last year, then as now the fifth round of the season, was his first in a campaign that saw him leading the championship and challenging for the title right down to the wire.

The Australian is currently third overall, 38 points adrift of champion team mate Sebastian Vettel, but with the momentum building.

The 34-year-old has been fifth, fourth, third and second in his last four races and seemingly poised to complete the sequence on Sunday.

Championship leader Vettel was second in the morning, but more than a second slower than Webber's time of 1:25.142, and third after lunch.

Vettel, 34 points clear of Hamilton, is chasing his fourth win of the campaign after starting all the races on pole position.

Germany's Nico Rosberg was third fastest for Mercedes in the morning ahead of Ferrari's Fernando Alonso and Mexican Sergio Perez for Sauber.

The afternoon session saw a change in the order, with McLaren's Jenson Button fourth ahead of local crowd favourite Alonso and Rosberg.

Seven times world champion Michael Schumacher's Mercedes was seventh in both.

Venezuelan rookie Pastor Maldonado provided the only real incident of the morning when he went off at turn 12 and was stuck in the gravel after completing just 11 laps.

Encouragingly for a team yet to score a point this season, Maldonado still ended that session 13th fastest while experienced Brazilian team mate Rubens Barrichello was 10th.

Ferrari's Felipe Massa also went off at turn five in the afternoon, without hitting the barriers.

"That was close, very close," the Brazilian said over the radio. "Yep, saw that," his engineer Rob Smedley answered.