Posted on 15th April 2016
In the first practice session in Shanghai, Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg topped the timesheets ahead of his team mate Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen; showing that they haven't lost their pace from Bahrain two weeks ago.
During FP1, we saw Lewis Hamilton spinning on the circuit at Turn 11 and struggling to get grip into his tyres. But he was able to get back to the garage and continue on in the session. We also saw Felipe Massa going off the circuit at Turn 6 after the rear left tyre was hanging off the rim after something spun up on his Williams. Massa did manage to get the car going in order to get back to the circuit and back to the garage to repair the car.
Race control brought out the red flag early in the session when Felipe Massa spun at Turn 6, dragging gravel onto track and gave the marshals a chance to clear the track of the debris. But Massa recovered to the pits and headed back out later in the session, but the left rear deflated again. Pirelli said investigations on both failures showed no sign of a puncture.
The session was red-flagged for a second time with 30 minutes left of the session to clear substantial debris following a left-rear tyre deflation for Renault’s Kevin Magnussen. Magnussen was warned by his team of a possible brake problem before Magnussen reported the rear suspension was broken.
However during the session, Hamilton spun twice at the same corner with Lewis reporting on team radio: “Something is up, I keep having this locking into Turn 11”.
In the closing stages of the session, Rosberg told Mercedes he was in “limp home mode” with the team telling him he might have an engine issue
Teams lost around 30 minutes during the second red flag as a comprehensive track inspection was carried out amid suggestions debris had triggered Magnussen’s puncture.
But there was a flurry of activity when the session restarted with eight minutes to go as the drivers tried to get lap times in in preparation for FP2.
But it was Nico Rosberg who was fastest with a lap time of 1.38.037 ahead of Lewis Hamilton in second place who was 0.146 seconds behind him and ahead of Sebastian Vettel in third place who was 0.628 seconds behind Rosberg.
Daniel Ricciardo finished the session in fourth place ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in fifth place, Daniil Kvyat in sixth place, Carlos Sainz Jr in seventh place, Jenson Button in eighth place and Nico Hulkenberg in ninth place and Max Verstappen who rounded off the top ten finishers.
Sergio Perez ended the session in eleventh place ahead of Fernando Alonso in twelfth place, Valtteri Bottas in thirteenth place, Romain Grosjean in fourteenth place and Marcus Ericsson in fifteenth place.
As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Rio Haryanto ended the session in sixteenth place ahead of Jolyon Palmer in seventeenth place and ahead of Pascal Wehrlein in eighteenth place and Felipe Nasr in nineteenth place.
Kevin Magnussen, Esteban Gutierrez and Felipe Massa did not set a time during the session.
The classification of FP1 for the Chinese GP is as follows:-
1. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1.38.037
2. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 0.146s
3. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 0.628s
4. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull-Renault, 1.024s
5. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1.118s
6. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull Renault, 1.588s
7. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 1.639s
8. Jenson Button, McLaren-Honda, 1.937s
9. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India-Mercedes, 2.132s
10. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, 2.195s
11. Sergio Perez, Force India-Mercedes, 2.310s
12. Fernando Alonso, McLaren-Honda, 2.501s
13. Valtteri Bottas, Williams-Mercedes, 2.791s
14. Romain Grosjean, Haas Ferrari, 3.321s
15. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber-Ferrari, 3.356s
16. Rio Haryanto, MRT Racing, 3.577s
17. Jolyon Palmer, Renault, 3.779s
18. Pascal Wehrlein, MRT Racing, 4.871s
19. Felipe Nasr, Sauber-Ferrari, 4.943s
20. Kevin Magnussen, Renault, Not classified
21. Esteban Gutierrez, Haas Ferrari, Not classified
22. Felipe Massa, Williams-Mercedes, Not classified
Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa
