McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton claimed his car was back to its 2008 championship-winning best after leading Friday’s practice at the Chinese Grand Prix.
Hamilton set the best time of the day, ahead of Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg. Their teammates, Jenson Button and Michael Schumacher, were third and fourth fastest.
“It’s reminiscent of 2008 kind of balance, and hopefully that will enable us to be competitive tomorrow in qualifying,” Hamilton said, recalling his Formula One title-winning year.
After botched qualifying sessions in Australia and Malaysia, Hamilton was eyeing a front-row grid spot and a chance to claim his first win of the season.
“In the past two races, our race pace was good but we had to come from too far back,” Hamilton said. “Ideally tomorrow we’d like to get into Q3 and have a top five start which will enable us to have a competitive run for the win.”
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Jenson Button Fastest in First Practice at Shanghai
Formula 1: Chinese Grand Prix - First Practice Results
Lewis Hamilton Fastest in Second Practice at Shanghai
Formula 1: Chinese Grand Prix - Second Practice Results
The Red Bull cars of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber were fifth and sixth Friday, though their pace in the longer runs was similar to McLaren. The team is aiming for back-to-back 1-2 finishes, both this season and in China. The Canadian Press
Adrian Sutil was a strong seventh for Force India ahead of Jaime Alguersuari, who upheld Toro Rosso’s honour after the suspension failure that pitched his team-mate Sebastien Buemi into an alarming accident in the morning.
Vitaly Petrov was 12th in the second Renault on 1m 36.986s. Pedro de la Rosa just pipped BMW Sauber team mate Kamui Kobayashi on this occasion with 1m 37.421s to 1m 37.431s, with Williams’ Rubens Barrichello taking 15th on 1m 37.657s ahead of Vitantonio Liuzzi in the second Force India on 1m 37.804s and Williams’ Nico Hulkenberg on 1m 37.867s.
After Karun Chandhok had enjoyed a spell placing HRT as the fastest of the new teams, Jarno Trulli supplanted him for Lotus with 1m 39.624s ahead of team mate Heikki Kovalainen on 1m 39.947s. The Finn provided one of the few moments when he pulled off towards the end with mechanical problems.
In the end the Virgins were split by Chandhok, Timo Glock lapping his VR-01 in 1m 40.233s to the Indian’s 1m 41.008s and Lucas di Grassi’s 1m 41.107s. Bruno Senna was 23rd on 1m 41.345s, and Buemi did not run as his car was still being fixed. Auto Racing Daily
POS DRIVER ENTRANT TIME 1 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 01:35.2 2 Nico Rosberg Mercedes GP 01:35.5 3 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 01:35.6 4 Michael Schumacher Mercedes GP 01:35.6 5 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 01:35.8 6 Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 01:36.0 7 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 01:36.3 8 Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 01:36.4 9 Robert Kubica Renault 01:36.4 10 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 01:36.6 11 Felipe Massa Ferrari 01:36.9 12 Vitaly Petrov Renault 01:37.0 13 Pedro de la Rosa BMW Sauber-Ferrari 01:37.4 14 Kamui Kobayashi BMW Sauber-Ferrari 01:37.4 15 Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 01:37.7 16 Vitantonio Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 01:37.8 17 Nico Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 01:37.9 18 Jarno Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 01:39.6 19 Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 01:39.9 20 Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 01:40.2 21 Karun Chandhok HRT-Cosworth 01:41.0 22 Lucas di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 01:41.1 23 Bruno Senna HRT-Cosworth 01:41.3 24 Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari No Time
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