Chinese GP: Hamilton tops FP1 ahead of Rosberg

Lewis Hamilton was fastest in FP1 to break team-mate’s Nico Rosberg’s streak of leading the way in FP1 at Melbourne and Kuala Lumpur. Hamilton was half a second faster than the German, and 1.5 seconds better than the Ferraris.

FP1 showed the Shanghai smog, quite a bit of sparks (hurray for that), and more than a few mistakes here and there to go off-track. Nothing too worrying though.

All 20 cars were able to put in a decent number of laps, with Felipe Massa completing the lowest-number at 17. Felipe also had a lock-up at turn 14. And he wasn’t the only one struggling as drivers battled what Jenson Button called ‘strange’ track conditions.

Felipe Nasr was an impressive fifth place at the end, ahead of the two Red Bulls, while Williams had a bit of a hard time and McLaren finished P13 with Jenson and P17 with Alonso.

The top ten in the first practice in Shanghai then:
1. Hamilton — 1:39.033
2. Rosberg — +0.541
3. Vettel — +1.124
4. Raikkonen — +1.628
5. Nasr — +1.979
6. Ricciardo — +1.996
7. Kvyat — +2.064
8. Sainz — +2.079
9. Bottas — +2.270
10. Massa — +2.271