Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel dominates first practice session at the Chinese Grand Prix: Formula One News
Sebastian Vettel unsurprisingly topped the first practice session of the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai, ahead of his teammate Mark Webber as Red Bull locked the top 2. The German was the only driver to enter the 1 minute 38 second mark
with a time of 1:38.739.
After 2 rounds of the season already done and dusted, the Formula One motor-heads set their course for Shanghai. The first practice session of the Chinese Grand Prix saw all 24 cars present after a mere 7-day break from the last race in Malaysia.
Looking down the order, McLaren has proved again to be the fastest team behind the RB7’s as Lewis Hamilton leads ahead of teammate Button in 3rd. Nick Heidfeld, after an inspired performance in the Malaysian Grand Prix, continued his strong run
as he posted the 5th fastest time in his Renault in just five laps.
Looking at the scarlet camp, Fernando Alonso did a lot of aero testing only to be the 12th fastest driver. Ferrari’s second driver, Felipe Massa, was 6th fastest with a time of 1 minute 41.046 seconds. Michael Schumacher was 18th fastest
in his Mercedes while his teammate, Nico Rosberg, set the 11th fastest time.
Elsewhere, changes in the line=up for the session included Daniel Ricciardo stepping in for Jamie Alguersuari at Toro Rosso. Luiz Razia came in for Jarno Trulli at Team Lotus and Nico Hulkenberg replaced Adrian Sutil at Force India.
On average, drivers did a total of around 20 laps during the practice session. Mark Webber, perhaps, had a point to prove after two somewhat disappointing outings in his Red Bull this term, did the most of number of laps as he went 27 times round the Shanghai
circuit during the course of the 90-minute session.
To conclude, while the first two races have been challenging in their own respective ways, this term, barring the on-track factor, the lack of time preparing for the Grand Prix proves to be yet another obstacle. So far, McLaren seem to be the closest constructor’s
that could very well do that heading into the race on Sunday.
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