Hamilton pips Raikkonen in China Practice

Lewis Hamilton has pipped Kimi Raikkonen in Friday practice for the Chinese Grand Prix as Daniel Ricciardo finished a second off the pace with an apparent braking issue.

Hamilton set what would ultimately be the day’s benchmark of 1:33.482s on the half-hour mark of Practice 2, with a ragged lap in his Mercedes despite running on ultrasoft tyres.

The Brit reported that there was “nothing left in these tyres” after the effort.

Team-mate Valtteri Bottas moved from fourth to second shortly after at 0.033s off the pace, before Raikkonen split them just before 45 minutes into the 90-minute session.

The field then settled into longer runs before light rain towards the end prevented any late flyers and locked in the classification as it stood at halfway.

Championship leader Sebastian Vettel therefore remained fourth in his Ferrari, from Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen.

The Renaults of Nico Hulkenberg and Carlos Sainz Jnr split seventh-placed Haas driver Kevin Magnussen.

Ricciardo finished the session 1.075s away from Hamilton in ninth position, complaining first that he was “not too happy with the pedal map” and later about a long brake pedal specifically in the #3 RB14.

His best lap in Practice 2 of 1:34.557s was on fact two hundredths of a second slower than in Practice 1.

Fernando Alonso, who was one of a handful of drivers to take to the circuit on intermediate tyres during the drizzle, rounded out the top 10 in his McLaren.

His team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne was involved in one of the main talking points when he pulled his MCL33 off the circuit with a loose right-rear wheel on an out lap.

The incident is under investigation for an alleged unsafe release.

New Zealander Brendon Hartley ended up 15th fastest, three positions and 0.484s back from Scuderia Toro Rosso team-mate Pierre Gasly.

All except 20 drivers set their fastest laps on ultrasoft tyres except for Haas’ Romain Grosjean, who was 19th-fastest on the soft compound with no supersoft available this weekend.

Hamilton also set the pace in Practice 1 with a 1:33.999s.

Practice 3 starts tomorrow at 1300 AEST before Qualifying from 1500.

Results: Practice 2

Pos	Num	Driver	Car	Fastest lap	Split	Laps
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:33.482		26
2	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:33.489	+0:00.007	26
3	77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1:33.515	+0:00.033	27
4	5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:33.590	+0:00.108	27
5	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing Tag Heuer	1:33.823	+0:00.341	26
6	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	1:34.313	+0:00.831	30
7	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas Ferrari	1:34.458	+0:00.976	26
8	55	Carlos Sainz	Renault	1:34.473	+0:00.991	28
9	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing Tag Heuer	1:34.557	+0:01.075	26
10	14	Fernando Alonso	McLaren Renault	1:34.632	+0:01.150	23
11	11	Sergio Perez	Force India Mercedes	1:34.792	+0:01.310	30
12	10	Pierre Gasly	Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda	1:34.849	+0:01.367	33
13	31	Esteban Ocon	Force India Mercedes	1:34.874	+0:01.392	30
14	2	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren Renault	1:35.163	+0:01.681	22
15	28	Brendon Hartley	Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda	1:35.333	+0:01.851	37
16	35	Sergey Sirotkin	Williams Mercedes	1:35.340	+0:01.858	31
17	9	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber Ferrari	1:35.624	+0:02.142	29
18	16	Charles Leclerc	Sauber Ferrari	1:35.916	+0:02.434	26
19	8	Romain Grosjean	Haas Ferrari	1:36.471	+0:02.989	26
20	18	Lance Stroll	Williams Mercedes	1:37.147	+0:03.665	19

Results: Practice 1

Pos	Num	Driver	Car	Fastest lap	Split	Laps
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:33.999		22
2	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:34.358	+0:00.359	14
3	77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1:34.457	+0:00.458	28
4	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing Tag Heuer	1:34.537	+0:00.538	22
5	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing Tag Heuer	1:34.668	+0:00.669	22
6	5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:34.861	+0:00.862	18
7	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas Ferrari	1:35.178	+0:01.179	21
8	55	Carlos Sainz	Renault	1:35.616	+0:01.617	23
9	8	Romain Grosjean	Haas Ferrari	1:35.718	+0:01.719	21
10	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	1:35.800	+0:01.801	18
11	10	Pierre Gasly	Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda	1:36.037	+0:02.038	21
12	14	Fernando Alonso	McLaren Renault	1:36.044	+0:02.045	29
13	11	Sergio Perez	Force India Mercedes	1:36.051	+0:02.052	28
14	31	Esteban Ocon	Force India Mercedes	1:36.351	+0:02.352	32
15	35	Sergey Sirotkin	Williams Mercedes	1:36.691	+0:02.692	31
16	28	Brendon Hartley	Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda	1:36.715	+0:02.716	23
17	16	Charles Leclerc	Sauber Ferrari	1:36.723	+0:02.724	23
18	2	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren Renault	1:36.756	+0:02.757	25
19	9	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber Ferrari	1:36.909	+0:02.910	21
20	18	Lance Stroll	Williams Mercedes	1:37.277	+0:03.278	28