Shanghai: Ferrari driver Felipe Massa set the fastest time in Friday's practice sessions for the Formula One Chinese Grand Prix. He set a best time of 1 minute, 35.340 seconds around the Shanghai International Circuit in the afternoon session, putting him 0.15 seconds ahead of Lotus' Kimi Raikkonen, while his Ferrari teammate Fernando Alonso came third.
Mercedes' Nico Rosberg was fourth fastest and Red Bull's Mark Webber fifth, while reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel was down in 10th. McLaren driver Jenson Button was sixth and Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton seventh, with many drivers complaining of high tire degradation.
Speaking about the Friday's practice session, Mark Webber said, “It was good today and we achieved a lot of mileage. There are obviously some pretty quick cars out there – we saw that in Malaysia before it rained in qualifying. We're getting a lot of information, but we’re still in this early phase of learning about the tyres. I think that we have a bit of work to do, but the car doesn't feel too bad, we just have to keep working on understanding the tyres. It’s nice to have a stable weekend in terms of weather, which is unusual in Shanghai.”
Meanwhile Vettel said that it was a tricky day for him and he struggled a bit this afternoon. “The gap to the guys at the top is a little bit bigger than I'd like. There are two or three things that we need to work on and then we should be in a better shape for tomorrow. I think we know what we need to do. It looks like the soft tyre is the one for qualifying, but it seems that we won’t see that many stints on the soft tyre during the race.”
Meanwhile Caterham driver, Ma Qing Hua, who became the first Chinese driver to take part in an F1 session in home country, said that it was a proud moment for him. “It was a very proud moment for me to be the first Chinese driver to take part in an F1 session in my home country, but to be honest I was focusing on doing my job and I’m pleased with how it went. I want to thane Caterham for this chance and for helping make me so comfortable in the car and all weekend.”
“We did 20 laps and my times kept coming down as I was more and more comfortable with the car. It felt like we had a slight issue towards the end of the session that cut the fourth run short but after a few checks it looked like a sensor problem so I was able to finish the session with a car that felt good with the final changes we made,” he added.
By ISN
