Brawn's Rubens Barrichello top after opening free practice at European GP

Brazilian veteran Rubens Barrichello topped the times for Brawn GP after the opening free practice session for this weekend's European Grand Prix.

The 37-year-old Barrichello clocked a best time of one minute and 42.460 seconds around the Mediterranean harbour street circuit with 15 minutes remaining on a hot morning in eastern Spain.

Finn Heikki Kovalainen was second fastest for McLaren ahead of his team-mate, defending drivers world champion Lewis Hamilton of Britain, who won his first race of the season at last month's Hungarian Grand Prix.

Championship-leading Briton Jenson Button was fourth in the second Brawn at the conclusion of an eventful morning's action which ended with Barrichello's car struggling with gearbox problems as he went for an even faster lap time.

Button was fastest for a long period during the morning, but ended up six-tenths of a second off Barrichello's pace, but the duo's overall performance suggested that Brawn have rediscovered some of their best form after three races in the doldrums.

German Sebastian Vettel was the top Red Bull driver in fifth position ahead of compatriot Adrian Sutil, who was sixth for the much-improved Force India team.

Japanese Kaazuki Nakajima was seventh for Williams ahead of Australian Mark Webber in the second Red Bull with two-times champion Spaniard Fernando Alonso of Renault and Finn Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari completing the top ten.

The session saw a flurry of incidents, but no serious accidents, as many drivers ran wide over the kerbs on the dusty asphalt circuit.

French debutant Romain Grosjean of Renault was 17th, more than a second slower than team-mate Alonso and veteran comeback driver Italian Luca Badoer, replacing injured Brazilian Felipe Massa for Ferrari, was 20th, two seconds down on Raikkonen.

Crash ends Raikkonen's WRC debut

Kimi Raikkonen has competed in three non-championship rallies this year

Kimi Raikkonen's debut in the World Rally Championship came to an end after the former Formula 1 champion crashed out of stage 19 of the Rally Finland.

The Finn was 15th overall when he rolled his Abarth Grande Punto off the road on Saturday's final stage.

He and co-driver Kaj Lindstrom were unhurt, although they narrowly missed the car of Mads Ostberg who had gone off at the same point moments earlier.

The damage to Raikkonen's car prevented the Ferrari driver returning on Sunday.

Raikkonen has appeared in three non-championship rallies this season, and a four-week break between the Hungarian Grand Prix and the European Grand Prix in Valencia on 21 August has allowed him to step up his involvement.

In a disappointing F1 season, Raikkonen has won just 10 points in the drivers' championship and 54 behind leader Jenson Button.

But his speed in the second-tier Super 2000 machine impressed as he climbed up to third in the category before his error ended his race.

Raikkonen's compatriot Mikko Hirvonen secured a victory for the home fans coming home 25 seconds ahead of title rival Sebastian Loeb.

World champion Loeb, who lost more than 10 seconds after damaging his rear tyre in a pothole on a hairpin on stage 15, now trails Hirvonen by three points in the overall standings.

Raikkonen was not the only F1 driver at the Finland Rally with Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel watching from the sidelines.

"I've plenty to do in F1, but who know maybe one day I will compete in the WRC - I wouldn't mind doing some drives in the future," Vettel told the World Rally Championship website.

Bumper entry for Neste Oil Rally Finland

A season record 124 crews are on the seeded entry list for the Neste Oil Rally Finland, round nine of the 2009 FIA World Rally Championship, which gets underway on Thursday 30 July.

The number of cars comfortably exceeds the 75 which took the start of Rally Portugal - the second most popular event of the season so far.

Rally Finland's bumper entry includes 18 World Rally cars, the complete Junior World Championship field, the five Pirelli Star drivers and nine Fiesta Sporting Trophy international entrants. Drivers representing 25 different nationalities are taking part.

In the WRC competition all four manufacturer teams have registered. Topping the seeded entry list is Finn Mikko Hirvonen of the BP Ford Abu Dhabi Team. He and his compatriot Jari-Matti Latvala are the team's two point's nominated drivers, while Khalid Al Qassimi will drive a third Ford Focus RS WRC for the squad.

The manufacturers' championship leading Citroen Total team will run C4 World Rally Cars for its two drivers Sebastien Loeb and Dani Sordo, while the French firm’s Junior team will run three more - two for nominated points scorers Sebastien Ogier and Evgeny Novikov and a third for Conrad Rautenbach.

The Ford powered Stobart VK M-Sport squad will run Focus RS WRCs for regular drivers Matthew Wilson and Henning Solberg.

Two Finnish drivers have been drafted into the Munchi's Ford Team for the rally. Full time driver Federico Villagra and one of the stars of last year's event, Matti Rantanen, are points nominated, while Mattias Therman will drive a third car.

Norwegians Petter Solberg (Citroen Xsara) and Mads Ostberg (Subaru Impreza WRC) are the two highest seeded privateer drivers. Meanwhile a handful of local drivers are also contesting the WRC class in privately entered cars and could well surprise a few of the full time WRC stars. Watch out for Jari Ketomaa (Subaru Impreza) Jukka Ketomaki (Skoda Octavia) and Jouni Arolainen (Ford Focus).

Rally Finland counts as the seventh, and penultimate, round of the Junior World Rally Championship and is one of only two rounds this year (like Italy) to have attracted entries from all of the registered drivers. Ten drivers are chasing J-WRC points in Finland, including a "Wild Card" entry for Finn Kalle Pinomaki. There are also nine Ford Fiesta Sport Trophy International contestants and five FIA Pirelli Star Drivers, headed by local favourite Jarkko Nikara

The highest profile guest driver in Finland is Ferrari Formula 1 World Champion Kimi Raikkonen who will make his make his debut at World Championship level.

Like on his earlier rally outings the Finn will be driving an Abarth Grande Punto Super 2000 and will be co-driven by Kaj Lindstrom. Further spice to the production category will be come from Anton Alen (son of Finnish WRC legend Markku) in another Abarth Super 2000 and last year's P-WRC class winner Juho Hanninen in a Skoda Fabia S2000.

Estonian Urmo Aava will make his WRC return after his last outing on Rally Norway in February. In Finland he will drive a privately entered two-wheel drive Honda Civic Type-R R3.

Raikkonen to race in world rally

Former Formula 1 champion Kimi Raikkonen is to compete in the World Rally Championship in his native Finland at the end of the July.

Ferrari's Raikkonen has appeared in three non-championship rallies this season and will be behind the wheel of a Fiat Abarth Grande Punto.

His co-driver, Kaj Lindstrom, said: "The roads used for this rally are so fast but he's very talented."

The rally is staged three weeks before the European Grand Prix in Valencia.

Raikkonen, who won the F1 title in 2007, will be competing against the likes of championship favourites Sebastien Loeb and Mikko Hirvonen.

Event spokesman Simon Long said: "It's superb news for the championship and hugely exciting that he'll be competing at Rally Finland."

In a disappointing season for Ferrari, Raikkonen has won just 10 points in the drivers' world championship, 54 behind leader Jenson Button.