Reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel has continued his recent run of majestic form, dominating the first practice session at the Chinese Grand Prix.
The German, who has won both races so far this season, in Australia and Malaysia, recorded his benchmark time of 1min 38.739secs after 55 minutes of the 90-minute session, and finished six-tenths of a second ahead of Red Bull teammate Mark Webber of Australia.
The Red Bulls were in a class of their own on Friday morning in Shanghai, with Britons Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button third and fourth for McLaren, but over two seconds adrift of Vettel’s blistering time.
German Nick Heidfeld was fifth for Renault despite a crash with half an hour of the session remaining, while Brazilian Felipe Massa was sixth for Ferrari but 2.3secs behind Vettel’s session-best pace. Bangkok Post
Then came interloping Sergio Perez on 1m 41.189s for Sauber, Pastor Maldonado on 1m 41.222s before he spun his Williams, Vitaly Petrov in the second Renault on 1m 41.231s, Sebastien Buemi on 1m 41.328s for Toro Rosso, Nico Rosberg on 1m 41.361s for Mercedes, Fernando Alonso in the other Ferrari on 1m 41.434s, Nico Hulkenberg in Adrian Sutil’s Force India on 1m 41.494s, Heikki Kovalainen in a very promising run for Lotus on 1m 41.579s, spinner Paul di Resta on 1m 41.610s in the second Force India, Daniel Ricciardo in Jaime Alguersuari’s Toro Rosso in 1m 41.752s and Rubens Barrichello in 1m 41.939s in the second Williams. Again, that’s a dozen cars within a second of one another.
Michael Schumacher just failed to break 1m 42, with 1m 42.301s in the second Mercedes, then came Kamui Kobayashi on 1m 42.752s in the second Sauber. Formula 1
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