Ferrari’s Felipe Massa set an ‘incredible’ pace to top the timesheets at the end of Chinese Grand Prix practice yesterday after Nico Rosberg had led a Mercedes one-two in the morning session.
“In terms of everybody else on the tyre, the pace is not good, it’s incredible,” declared the Brazilian’s race engineer Rob Smedley after Massa set a quickest time of one minute 35.340 on the soft Pirelli tyre.
Kimi Raikkonen, winner of the Melbourne season-opener in March, was second fastest for Lotus in 1:35.492.
Last year’s winner Rosberg had lapped in 1:36.717 before lunch, with 2008 world champion Lewis Hamilton 0.454 slower.
The German has led the race in Shanghai in the past three editions while his 2012 win at the monumental circuit was the first of his Formula One career.
Hamilton, third in Malaysia last month after Rosberg was ordered not to overtake because of concerns the cars might run out of fuel, is the only driver to have won twice in China.
Red Bull’s Mark Webber, whose working relationship with world champion Sebastian Vettel hit a new low after a team orders storm in Malaysia, ended both sessions ahead of the German.
Webber was third and fifth respectively while Vettel was fourth and 10th in the timesheets.
“It was a tricky day for us.
“I seemed to struggle a little bit more this afternoon; the gap to the guys at the top is a bit bigger than I would like,” Vettel told reporters.
“But we have two or three things to work on and we should be in better shape tomorrow. It’s not a disaster.”
Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso lapped fifth in the morning and third in the afternoon, but with a car in a different specification to Massa’s, while McLaren’s Jenson Button was sixth in both.
McLaren have worked tirelessly over the past two weeks to rectify the faults on a car that started abysmally off the pace in Australia, and to a lesser extent in Malaysia.
Sporting a new exhaust and sidepods, along with many other bits of bodywork, the Woking-based marque appear to be closing the gap on their rivals.
For Button’s team-mate Sergio Perez, though, both sessions were ones to forget as he ended FP1 by breaking the front wing with a run across the gravel at the entrance to the pit lane.
Whilst just 15 minutes into FP2 he spun his car, again through a gravel trap, before damaging the rear wing against a tyre wall.
The Mexican eventually finished 11th quickest, just behind Vettel.
Triple champion Vettel leads the championship after two races with 40 points, nine clear of Raikkonen.
Meanwhile, China’s Ma Qing Hua, in the Caterham that will be raced by Frenchman Charles Pic tomorrow, wrote a footnote in Formula One history by becoming the first Chinese driver to take part in a grand prix weekend on Chinese soil.
He was last of the 22 drivers on track in the morning, 6.828 seconds slower than Rosberg, with both Caterhams lagging rivals Marussia at the tail end.
Top 10 In Second Free Practice
1. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Ferrari - 1:35.340
2. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Lotus - 1:35.492
3. Fernando Alonso (Spain) Ferrari - 1:35.755
4. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Mercedes - 1:35.819
5. Mark Webber (Australia) Red Bull - 1:36.092
6. Jenson Button (Britain) McLaren - 1:36.432
7. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) Mercedes - 1:36.496
8. Adrian Sutil (Germany) Force India - 1:36.514
9. Paul Di Resta (Britain) Force India - 1:36.595
10. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) Red Bull - 1:36.791
Drivers’ Championship
1. Vettel (Germany) 40; 2. Raikkonen (Finland) 31; 3. Webber (Australia) 26; 4. Hamilton (Britain) 25; 5. Massa (Brazil) 22; 6. Alonso (Spain) 18; 7. Rosberg (Germany) 12; 8. Grosjean (France) 9; 9. Sutil (Germany) 6; 10. Di Resta (Britain) 4; 11. Hulkenberg (Germany) 4; 12. Perez (Mexico) 2; 13. Button (Britain) 2; 14. Vergne (France) 1.