Sebastian Vettel remains the man to beat in Shanghai after final practice.
The Red Bull driver was fastest by 0.2 seconds ahead of the McLarens.
But team mate Mark Webber was only 15th after losing time in the final session due to problems with his Kinetic Energy Recovery System.
The McLarens of Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton were second and third.
Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes took fourth ahead of the Ferraris, led by Fernando Alonso.
Vitaly Petrov, Adrian Sutil, Michael Schumacher and Paul di Resta completed the top ten.
One of few incidents in a largely quiet session came at the end of the hour, when Jerome d’Ambrosio’s Virgin lost part of its front wing at turn 13.
Combined practice times
Pos | Driver | Car | FP1 | FP2 | FP3 | Total laps |
1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 1’38.739 | 1’37.688 | 1’34.968 | 70 |
2 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’40.940 | 1’37.935 | 1’35.176 | 68 |
3 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’40.845 | 1’37.854 | 1’35.373 | 57 |
4 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1’41.361 | 1’37.943 | 1’35.677 | 75 |
5 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1’41.434 | 1’39.779 | 1’35.818 | 49 |
6 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1’41.046 | 1’38.507 | 1’35.971 | 76 |
7 | Vitaly Petrov | Renault | 1’41.231 | 1’38.859 | 1’36.098 | 65 |
8 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 1’38.735 | 1’36.125 | 50 | |
9 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 1’42.301 | 1’38.105 | 1’36.141 | 66 |
10 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes | 1’41.610 | 1’36.370 | 37 | |
11 | Nick Heidfeld | Renault | 1’40.987 | 1’38.805 | 1’36.404 | 47 |
12 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’43.792 | 1’39.538 | 1’36.582 | 71 |
13 | Sergio Perez | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’41.189 | 1’39.953 | 1’36.596 | 67 |
14 | Sebastien Buemi | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’41.328 | 1’39.771 | 1’36.717 | 55 |
15 | Mark Webber | Red Bull-Renault | 1’39.354 | 1’39.327 | 1’36.896 | 65 |
16 | Jaime Alguersuari | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’39.828 | 1’36.953 | 39 | |
17 | Rubens Barrichello | Williams-Cosworth | 1’41.939 | 1’39.925 | 1’37.007 | 77 |
18 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams-Cosworth | 1’41.222 | 1’39.667 | 1’37.304 | 75 |
19 | Heikki Kovalainen | Lotus-Renault | 1’41.579 | 1’40.476 | 1’38.176 | 55 |
20 | Jarno Trulli | Lotus-Renault | 1’41.482 | 1’38.739 | 44 | |
21 | Timo Glock | Virgin-Cosworth | 1’44.438 | 1’44.747 | 1’39.938 | 40 |
22 | Jerome d’Ambrosio | Virgin-Cosworth | 1’44.089 | 1’44.008 | 1’39.998 | 71 |
23 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | HRT-Cosworth | 1’44.359 | 1’43.850 | 1’40.593 | 38 |
24 | Narain Karthikeyan | HRT-Cosworth | 1’45.019 | 1’42.902 | 1’40.881 | 66 |
25 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 1’41.494 | 20 | ||
26 | Daniel Ricciardo | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’41.752 | 20 | ||
27 | Luiz Razia | Lotus-Cosworth | 1’44.542 | 18 |
2011 Chinese Grand Prix
Image © Red Bull/Getty images
trulli dead
16th April 2011, 5:12
Webber better hope that his KERS starts working soon!
US_Peter
16th April 2011, 5:31
…and Vettel better be praying that his holds up.
mingmong
16th April 2011, 5:59
golden boy wont have an issue…
Fixy (@)
16th April 2011, 9:17
It didn’t!
RIISE (@riise)
16th April 2011, 5:13
Well it looks like Mercedes have finally sorted out there DRS problems and found a setup that suits the car and the drivers. Good to see.
As for Red Bull/Vettel, what can you really say. Pole by about 4 tenths?
Hoshi
16th April 2011, 5:37
i am personally happy to see Karthikeyan is on 3 tenths behind liuzzi now..not a full second like earlier..i think he is getting his bearings back after such a long time out of the sport..
RIISE (@riise)
16th April 2011, 5:41
I still think Nahrain is a worthless (Well not to HRT obviously) annoying idiot, I preferred Sakon.
tony
16th April 2011, 6:10
I think ur from japan. How is sakon better then narain? Just give him a better car then u’ll knw. He is quick & got aggressive driving style. On his day he can even win a race or podium.
Mr.Nice (@mr-nice)
16th April 2011, 5:45
Anyone for MSc spoiling the McLaren/Ferrari party??? Flying Nick doesn’t seem to be flying as yet…
Raveendhana
16th April 2011, 5:46
good to see force india back in top ten.
Eggry (@eggry)
16th April 2011, 5:52
I wish Hamilton snatchs pole from Vettel. I’m sick of Vettel dominant races. Mercedes is impressive. All problem is not pure performance but setting failure? Force India’s improvment is coincidence?
Oliver
16th April 2011, 6:06
When a driver can just go out and immediately set the fastest lap with a minim of effort, you just know that he isn’t even going at a hundred percent. He may just as well have a beer in hand as he sets very fast times.
Ironically, I found it strange David Croft saying the Redbull wing nit flexing as much as last year, when at the very same moment, vettels front wing was shaving the hair off some ants on the race track. :-)
F1iLike
16th April 2011, 6:36
They should start moving pole position according to how much faster than 2nd it is…
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
16th April 2011, 6:56
Well, that’s my pole time prediction out the window! Nevermind…
Hope Sauber get a better result than this shows in the race.
Doance (@doance)
16th April 2011, 7:10
Whoops! I forgot to enter my pole time. Damn.
Todfod (@todfod)
16th April 2011, 7:17
Since they were consistently more than a second slower in FP sessions this year, I decided to keep the pole second in the low 1:35s, but looks like I’m way off as well. Looks like getting the pole sitter right is the only thing that is working for me in the prediction championship so far.
Calum (@calum)
16th April 2011, 8:22
Vettel makes it three out of three in
free practice 3qualifying!HounslowBusGarage (@hounslowbusgarage)
16th April 2011, 8:27
Not sure I understand. The BBC says Webber is in 18th place (Jake Humphreys and separate interview with Webber), but he’s shown here as 15th.
Did other drivers get penalties?
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
16th April 2011, 10:38
These are FP3 times ;)