Lewis Hamilton, the leader in the Formula One world championship race, turned in the fastest time Friday in the first practice run ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix, finishing well ahead of his closest rival, Felipe Massa.
The fastest of 23 laps in Shanghai by the British McLaren-Mercedes driver was 1 minute, 35.63 seconds.
In second was the man directly trailing him in the world championship standings, Massa of Brazil, who finished 0.39 seconds behind Hamilton in his Ferrari.
Behind Massa came outgoing champion and Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, who will pass on his crown to either the Brazilian or Hamilton, with BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica an outside shot.
Raikkonen finished marginally behind Massa, with McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen fourth quickest followed by Kubica, who is 12 points adrift of Hamilton.
Fernando Alonso, winner of the last two races in Singapore and Japan, was the best of the rest albeit a fraction over a second down on Hamilton.
Nick Heidfeld led the next group with 1m 37.040s in the second BMW Sauber, ahead of Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Bourdais (1m 37.070s), Renault’s Nelson Piquet (1m 37.180s), Toro Rosso’s Sebastian Vettel (1m 37.278s), Red Bull’s Mark Webber (1m 37.491s), Honda’s Jenson Button (1m 37.619s), Williams’ Kazuki Nakajima (1m 37.630s), Red Bull’s David Coulthard and Williams’ Nico Rosberg (1m 37.638s), Toyota’s Timo Glock (1m 37.664s) and Honda’s Rubens Barrichello (1m 37.827s).
Toyota’s Jarno Trulli (1m 38.219s), and the Force Indias of Adrian Sutil (1m 38.285s) and Giancarlo Fisichella (1m 38.479s) brought up the rear.
| 
|