Red Bulls on top after Practice 1
Vettel topped Practice 1 in Shanghai
Red Bull Racing duo Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber have ended the frist practice session for Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix on top of the time sheets.
Vettel’s best time of 1:38.7s was a staggering 2.1s quicker than the fastest non-Red Bull entry, driven by Lewis Hamilton.
Hamilton’s McLaren team-mate Jenson Button followed in fourth, ahead of Renault’s Nick Heidfeld.
Heidfeld lost time in the final 30 minutes of the session by damaging his car in a Turn 10 off.
Felipe Massa, Sergio Perez, Pastor Maldonado, Vitaly Petrov and Sebastien Buemi rounded out the top 10.
Ferrari ace Fernando Alonso was just 12th fastest after spending the session completing aerodynamic tests.
West Australian Daniel Ricciardo was 16th in Jaime Alguesuari’s Toro Rosso – just 0.6s behind team-mate Sebastien Buemi.
See below for the session results
| 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 1m38.739s | |
| 2 | Mark Webber | Red Bull-Renault | 1m39.354s | 0.615 |
| 3 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1m40.845s | 2.106 |
| 4 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1m40.940s | 2.201 |
| 5 | Nick Heidfeld | Renault | 1m40.987s | 2.248 |
| 6 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1m41.046s | 2.307 |
| 7 | Sergio Perez | Sauber-Ferrari | 1m41.189s | 2.450 |
| 8 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams-Cosworth | 1m41.222s | 2.483 |
| 9 | Vitaly Petrov | Renault | 1m41.231s | 2.492 |
| 10 | Sebastien Buemi | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1m41.328s | 2.589 |
| 11 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1m41.361s | 2.622 |
| 12 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1m41.434s | 2.695 |
| 13 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 1m41.494s | 2.755 |
| 14 | Heikki Kovalainen | Lotus-Renault | 1m41.579s | 2.840 |
| 15 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes | 1m41.610s | 2.871 |
| 16 | Daniel Ricciardo | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1m41.752s | 3.013 |
| 17 | Rubens Barrichello | Williams-Cosworth | 1m41.939s | 3.200 |
| 18 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 1m42.301s | 3.562 |
| 19 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari | 1m43.792s | 5.053 |
| 20 | Jerome D’Ambrosio | Virgin-Cosworth | 1m44.089s | 5.350 |
| 21 | Tonio Liuzzi | HRT-Cosworth | 1m44.359s | 5.620 |
| 22 | Timo Glock | Virgin-Cosworth | 1m44.438s | 5.699 |
| 23 | Luiz Razia | Lotus-Renault | 1m44.542s | 5.803 |
| 24 | Narain Karthikeyan | HRT-Cosworth | 1m45.019s | 6.280 |
See below for Speedcafe.com’s full Chinese Grand Prix Race Guide