Red Bull on top in Shanghai practice session one: Formula 1 Update
The Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix is underway, as the teams came out for the first practice session at Shanghai on Friday, 15 April. There were no surprises though as Red Bull drivers Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber headed the time sheets. It seems that
this race weekend will be dominated by the reigning champions yet again.
The youngest Formula 1 champion in history struggled during the practice sessions in Malaysia, but today was not that case. He was more than half a second ahead of his team-mate, with a fastest lap of one minute 38.739 seconds.
Although Webber’s lap time was not good enough to be on top, he was the only driver to challenge Vettel. The Australian has been unable to score a podium finish in the first two races of the season and will be eyeing to bounce back from this race.
McLaren has been the only team to challenge Red Bull at the front, but it seems that the British team will not be able to fight for the win in China. They had closed the gap to their rivals in the Malaysian GP, but failed to show and improvement today. However,
both drivers Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button clocked some good times consistently. They ended up third and fourth fastest respectively.
Renault were the surprise team when they performed in Australia and Malaysia. They proved to be consistent, as driver Nick Heidfeld was fifth fastest overall in the session. He only came out for five laps though, which suggests that he would have been carrying
low fuel.
Heidfeld’s team-mate Vitaly Petrov was on a longer stint, but the Russian was unable to live up to the expectations of his team. He was ninth in the session overall but will be eyeing an improvement in the second practice, which will take place in a couple
of hours time from now.
The Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso were at sixth and 12th respectively. The Spaniard was conducting some tests in the session, which kept him from attacking.
Mercedes had a disappointing start to their race weekend, as drivers Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher were unable to finish in the top ten. They only managed the 11th and 18th fastest lap time today.
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