Lewis Hamilton of the Mercedes AMG Formula 1 went quickest Friday in both free practice sessions ahead of this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix.
This morning’s cool conditions caused several off-track moments. Hamilton, in his W06, vaulted to the top of the timesheet with about 40 minutes remaining. His best lap of 1m39.033 was good enough to keep him more than half a second clear of teammate Nico Rosberg and 1.1s ahead of Malaysian Grand Prix-winner Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari. Vettel was followed by his teammate Kimi Raikkonen, who ended the session with a best time of 1m40.661, just over five tenths of a second down on Vettel. Sauber’s Felipe Nasr emphasised the current strength of Ferrari’s much-improved power unit by taking fifth place, 0.4s second behind Raikkonen.
Second free practice session Hamilton continued to set the pace following up his fastest lap of the morning session with the best time of the afternoon. The Briton posted a fastest lap 1m37.219 on the soft Pirelli tire to finish four-tenths of a second clear of Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, with Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo third. Rosberg, meanwhile, finished fifth behind Sebastian Vettel, 1.1 seconds behind Hamilton after making a mistake on his soft tire run.
Red Bull Racing’s Daniil Kvyat finished sixth, but the Russian was forced out of the session by brake problem that eventually saw him trundle off track and into the barriers with complete brake failure as he attempted a slow crawl back to the pits. Valtteri Bottas took seventh place for Williams but it was a far more difficult afternoon for teammate Felipe Massa. A problem with the rear wing of his car saw the Brazilian lose control of his Williams under braking as he approached the turn 14 hairpin and he slid off track and damaged the front wing of his FW37. He played no further part in the session. Felipe Nasr was eighth fastest for Sauber-Ferrari ahead of Lotus’ Romain Grosjean. Jenson Button finished an excellent 10th for McLaren-Honda confirming the progress the team has made in recent weeks.
2015 Chinese Grand Prix – Free Practice 1* 1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m39.033 2 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m39.574 3 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1m40.157 4 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m40.661 5 Felipe Nasr Sauber 1m41.012 6 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 1m41.029 7 Daniil Kvyat Red Bull Racing 1m41.097 8 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso 1m41.112 9 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1m41.303 10 Felipe Massa Williams 1m41.304 11 Pastor Maldonado Lotus 1m41.335 12 Max Verstappen Toro Rosso 1m41.575 13 Jenson Button McLaren 1m41.845 14 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1m41.918 15 Jolyon Palmer Lotus 1m41.967 16 Sergio Perez Force India 1m42.141 17 Fernando Alonso McLaren 1m42.161 18 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1m42.184 19 Will Stevens Marussia 1m45.379 20 Roberto Merhi Marussia 1m46.443
2015 Chinese Grand Prix – Free Practice 2* 1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m37.219 2 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1m37.662 3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 1m38.311 4 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1m38.339 5 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m38.399 6 Daniil Kvyat Red Bull Racing 1m38.737 7 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1m38.850 8 Felipe Nasr Sauber 1m39.032 9 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1m39.142 10 Jenson Button McLaren 1m39.275 11 Pastor Maldonado Lotus 1m39.444 12 Fernando Alonso McLaren 1m39.743 13 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1m39.751 14 Max Verstappen Toro Rosso 1m39.894 15 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso 1m39.971 16 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1m40.151 17 Felipe Massa Williams 1m40.423 18 Sergio Perez Force India 1m40.868 19 Roberto Merhi Marussia 1m42.973 20 Will Stevens Marussia 1m44.564 *Unofficial timing
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