Practice #1

The first Friday practice session saw the top four car running with Mercedes engines. Lewis Hamilton has shrugged off his Australian GP lying fiasco and tops the practice in first spot in a time of 1:37.334.

0.116 seconds behind was the leading drivers title for this season Brawn’s GP Jensen Button. His teammate Rubens Barrichello completed the third spot with a flying lap of 1:37.566. Heikki Kovalainen was slightly slower than Barrichello and had to settle for 4th.

The fastest Ferrari during the first practice session was Torro Rosso’s Sebastien Bordais in 10th position, while BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica was trying out the KERS system and was understandably slow in 18th spot.

Former world champion Kimi Raikkonen was a disappointing 11th and teammate Massa was 15th, but I reckon Ferrari are still testing their cars and are usually slower during non-race days.

1. Lewis Hamilton (McLaren-Mercedes) 01:37.334 / 22 laps
2. Jenson Button (Brawn-Mercedes) 01:37.450 / 18 laps
3. Rubens Barrichello (Brawn-Mercedes) 01:37.566 / 19 laps
4. Heikki Kovalainen (McLaren-Mercedes) 01:37.672 / 23 laps
5. Mark Webber (RBR-Renault) 01:37.752 / 20 laps
6. Jarno Trulli (Toyota) 01:37.764 / 19 laps
7. Nico Rosberg (Williams-Toyota) 01:37.860 / 24 laps
8. Timo Glock (Toyota) 01:37.894 / 21 laps
9. Fernando Alonso (Renault) 01:38.089 / 19 laps
10. Sebastien Bourdais (STR-Ferrari) 01:38.195 / 24 laps
11. Kimi Räikkönen (Ferrari) 01:38.223 / 23 laps
12. Sebastian Vettel (RBR-Renault) 01:38.274 / 20 laps
13. Sebastien Buemi (STR-Ferrari) 01:38.307 / 26 laps
14. Adrian Sutil (Force India-Mercedes) 01:38.319 / 18 laps
15. Felipe Massa (Ferrari) 01:38.418 / 20 laps
16. Nick Heidfeld (BMW Sauber) 01:38.456 / 21 laps
17. Giancarlo Fisichella (Force India-Mercedes) 01:38.460 / 19 laps
18. Robert Kubica (BMW Sauber) 01:38.463 / 18 laps
19. Kazuki Nakajima (Williams-Toyota) 01:38.730 / 25 laps
20. Nelsinho Piquet (Renault) 01:38.825 / 20 laps

Practice #2

The second practice session saw Jenson Button burning the asphalt in Shanghai as he came off with the quickest practice time in China ahead of the qualifying session with a time of 1:35.679.

Nico Rosberg of Williams car was surprising fast and pipped Brawn GP’s Rubens Barrichello for second fastest. Their timing was 1:35.704 and 1:35.881 respectively.

After an encouraging timing on his prior practice session, McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton couldn’t replicate his number one performance and slipped to 13th spot with a time of 1:36.941.

The Red Bull Racing team has a better second half performance as both Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel catapulted themselves in 4th and 5th place respectively.

The Ferrari car to me looks sluggish and are in for another slump as they languished in the bottom half of the timing standings. Massa finished in 12th position and Räikkönen 14th.

1. Jenson Button (Brawn-Mercedes) 01:35.679 / 35 laps
2. Nico Rosberg (Williams-Toyota) 01:35.704 / 36 laps
3. Rubens Barrichello (Brawn-Mercedes) 01:35.881 / 35 laps
4. Mark Webber (RBR-Renault) 01:36.105 / 32 laps
5. Sebastian Vettel (RBR-Renault) 01:36.167 / 22 laps
6. Jarno Trulli (Toyota) 01:36.217 / 42 laps
7. Kazuki Nakajima (Williams-Toyota) 01:36.377 / 32 laps
8. Timo Glock (Toyota) 01:36.548 / 40 laps
9. Heikki Kovalainen (McLaren-Mercedes) 01:36.674 / 34 laps
10. Sebastien Bourdais (STR-Ferrari) 01:36.800 / 34 laps
11. Adrian Sutil (Force India-Mercedes) 01:36.829 / 30 laps
12. Felipe Massa (Ferrari) 01:36.847 / 34 laps
13. Lewis Hamilton (McLaren-Mercedes) 01:36.941 / 28 laps
14. Kimi Räikkönen (Ferrari) 01:37.054 / 33 laps
15. Sebastien Buemi (STR-Ferrari) 01:37.219 / 34 laps
16. Nelsinho Piquet (Renault) 01:37.273 / 36 laps
17. Robert Kubica (BMW Sauber) 01:37.491 / 34 laps
18. Nick Heidfeld (BMW Sauber) 01:37.544 / 28 laps
19. Fernando Alonso (Renault) 01:37.638 / 28 laps
20. Giancarlo Fisichella (Force India-Mercedes) 01:37.750 / 31 laps