Practice 1 Report - Hamilton's Shanghai surprise

The first practice session for the Chinese Grand Prix resulted in the fastest time for Lewis Hamilton's McLaren, running one of the team's latest diffusers. The World Champion was ahead of Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello in their Brawn-Mercedes. Heikki Kovalainen was fourth fastest.

Fifth fastest was Mark Webber in his Red Bull-Renault ahead of Jarno Trulli's Toyota, Nico Rosberg's Williams-Toyota and Timo Glock's Toyota. Fernando Alonso was ninth in his Renault, also running a new diffuser, while the top 10 was completed by Sebastien Bourdais's Toro Rosso, which seems to suggest that the times are not to be taken too seriously at the moment.

Kimi Raikkonen was 11th in his Ferrari and with Felipe Massa 15th the Italian team was clearly not doing very well. Sebastian Vettel was 12th in his Red Bull with Adrian Sutil's Force India-Mercedes 14th.

BMW Sauber was not bothering with times as usual on a Friday with Nick Heidfeld 16th and Robert Kubica 18th, the pair split by the Force India of Giancarlo Fisichella. The field was completed by the Williams of Kazuki Nakajima, Sebastien Buemi's Toro Rosso and the Renault of Nelson Piquet.