First results from the HMPID detector in the ALICE experiment at LHC

The ALICE experiment is dedicated to the study of heavy‐ion collisions at LHC energies. ALICE has a high‐quality hadron identification system in the central region e.g. a Inner Tracking System, a large Time‐Projection‐Chamber, a Time‐Of‐Flight and the High Momentum Particle Identification Detector (HMPID). The ALICE HMPID detector has been designed to identify charged hadrons (ρ, K, p) in the momentum range $1<p<5 GeV/c.$ Despite its limited geometrical acceptance, less than 10% of the central ALICE barrel, the HMPID detector has successfully accumulated enough statistics during the first proton‐proton runs at LHC, to allow the detector alignment and to evaluate the calibration parameters needed to estimate its performance. Preliminary HMPID results from p‐p collisions at $s = 7 TeV$ and its future contribution to the ALICE physics programme, will be presented.