Formula 1 News

Chinese GP, 1st Free Practice Session: Kimi sets the pace 

Kimi Raikkonen set the pace in the first practice session for the Chinese Grand Prix. The Ferrari driver beat McLaren’s Fernando Alonso by 0.084 seconds at a dry Shanghai, with their teammates Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton taking third and fourth.

Hamilton had been the first leading driver to set a flying lap, moving to the head of the field with a 1’37”510 after half an hour. The championship leader only spent a few minutes on top before Massa beat his time by 0.014 seconds. The top four all gained 0.3-0.5 seconds on their second runs, and this time it was Raikkonen who emerged fastest on a 1’37”094. Alonso, who had been four tenths of a second adrift of the other three earlier on – improved to second, 0.014 seconds behind Raikkonen. At this stage, all four of the leading contenders were covered by just 0.116 seconds.

Only Raikkonen improved when all four rejoined for their final runs, with the Finn extending his advantage by 0.070 seconds. His teammate Massa had a spin at Turn 1, while Hamilton also took a brief trip off the road on his last lap. Raikkonen and Alonso had got their mistakes out of the way earlier on – both running wide on to the run-off at the final corner on their first flying laps of the morning. For much of the session the McLaren and Ferrari had been a second clear of the rest of the field, but at the end of the morning Williams’ Nico Rosberg used the softer Bridgestones to vault to fifth, 0.6 seconds off the pace.

Rosberg’s lap pushed Robert Kubica (BMW-Sauber) back to sixth place. His teammate Nick Heidfeld came to a halt on track after developing a gearbox oil leak with 35 minutes to go, but was returned to the pits in time to rejoin for a final run and take 10th. Jarno Trulli had been fifth for much of the morning, but ended up being edged back to seventh, ahead of Renault’s Giancarlo Fisichella and Williams test driver Kazuki Nakajima, who replaced Alex Wurz for the session.

source: autosport