Chinese GP 2011

APRIL 15, 2011

Practice 2 Report - Vettel still ahead in China

Sebastian Vettel, Chinese GP 2011
© WRI2

Sebastian Vettel (1:37.688) finished the first day of practice for the Chinese Grand Prix on top of the time sheets in Shanghai, with Red Bull's RB7 looking highly convincing in terms of both one lap and longer run pace.

Lewis Hamilton (1:37.854) was second quickest, marginally faster than McLaren-Mercedes team mate Jenson Button (1:37.935). Nico Rosberg (1:37.943) lapped just a hundredth of a second slower and 0.16s up on Mercedes team mate Michael Schumacher (1:38.105).

At Ferrari, Fernando Alonso spent much of the session standing around the Ferrari pit while the team sorted out a hydraulics issue and then concentrated on long runs when he finally got out, finishing the session down in 14th place, while Felipe Massa (1:38.507) was sixth with the sister Maranello machine.

Adrian Sutil (1:38.735) was next up for Force India, just ahead of the Renaults of Nick Heidfeld (1:38.805) and Vitaly Petrov (1:38.859). After his off in FP1 there was more drama for Nick Heidfeld when he went straight on at Turn 12 and damaged the front wing of the Renault once again, this time keeping the engine alive and managing to get back to the pits to continue his session after running repairs. Mark Webber's Red Bull (1:39.327) completed the top 10, the Australian concentrating largely on heavy fuel runs, at one point running wide on the exit of the fast Turn 13.

Tonio Liuzzi only managed three laps in the HRT at the end of the session but still managed to outpace Timo Glock's Virgin, which also had problems. Paul di Resta, meanwhile, got no track time at all, his Force India spending the session in the pits with the engine off while the team tried to solve a fuel pressure problem.