Practice 1 Report - No surprises in Shanghai

Lewis Hamilton set the pace in the first practice session for the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai with a time that was four-tenths of a second faster than his World Championship challenger Felipe Massa. Kimi Raikkonen was third quickest in his Ferrari but made a mistake (as is becoming his habit). He was still faster than fellow countryman Heikki Kovalainen in the second McLaren.

Robert Kubica was the best of the rest with fifth place and Nick Heidfeld was close behind, although the pair were split by the Renault of Fernando Alonso.

Eighth fastest was the Toro Rosso of Sebastien Bourdais, who was once again outperforming his team-mate Sebastian Vettel. The two were split by the second Renault of Nelson Piquet.

In the midfield Mark Webber found himself under pressure from the Honda of Jenson Button, while Kazuki Nakajima once again outqualified David Coulthard, Nico Rosberg and Timo Glock. Rubens Barrichello was next with Jarno Trulli behind him in the second Toyota, a poor performance for the team from Cologne. At the back were the two Force Indias as usual with Adrian Sutil again beating Giancarlo Fisichella.