Lewis Hamilton ended practice for the Chinese Grand Prix fastest for McLaren.
He posted a 1’35.940, fractionally quicker than Michael Schumacher’s best time from yesterday.
Team mate Jenson Button was second fastest ahead of the two Mercedes.
Mark Webber headed the times early in the session on medium tyres.
But the Mercedes drivers made an early switch to the soft compounds and took over the top of the times – first Schumacher, then Rosberg, who instantly pipped his team mate’s best effort by 0.123s.
With ten minutes to go Button did his first soft tyre lap and put the McLaren on top by a tenth of a second. He backed off on his next lap, then lowered his time to a 1’36.063.
Hamilton began his first soft tyre lap with five minutes to go. He was quickest of all in the first two sectors but lost a little time in the final third, locking up briefly at the hairpin. Nonetheless he was still quickest, a tenth faster than his team mate.
Mark Webber was fifth ahead of Pastor Maldonado and the Saubers of Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi. The latter pair were comfortably quickest in the speed trap.
Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen completed the top ten.
Ferrari look set to struggle in qualifying. Fernando Alonso was only 15th fastest, Felipe Massa 18th.
With the track temperature around 10C higher than yesterday, several drivers failed to improve on their fastest time from yesterday, including Schumacher and both Red Bull drivers.
Chinese Grand Prix combined practice times
Pos | Driver | Car | FP1 | FP2 | FP3 | Fri/Sat diff | Total laps |
1 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’37.106 | 1’36.145 | 1’35.940 | -0.205 | 49 |
2 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 1’38.316 | 1’35.973 | 1’36.512 | +0.539 | 63 |
3 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’39.199 | 1’36.711 | 1’36.063 | -0.648 | 46 |
4 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 1’39.198 | 1’36.160 | 1’37.039 | +0.879 | 54 |
5 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1’38.116 | 1’36.617 | 1’36.389 | -0.228 | 61 |
6 | Mark Webber | Red Bull-Renault | 1’38.977 | 1’36.433 | 1’36.635 | +0.202 | 55 |
7 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams-Renault | 1’40.540 | 1’38.176 | 1’36.765 | -1.411 | 64 |
8 | Sergio Perez | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’38.584 | 1’37.417 | 1’36.781 | -0.636 | 54 |
9 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’38.911 | 1’36.956 | 1’36.880 | -0.076 | 57 |
10 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes | 1’36.966 | 1’37.288 | +0.322 | 47 | |
11 | Kimi Raikkonen | Lotus-Renault | 1’50.465 | 1’37.836 | 1’37.061 | -0.775 | 58 |
12 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 1’40.328 | 1’37.191 | 1’37.237 | +0.046 | 60 |
13 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus-Renault | 1’41.204 | 1’37.972 | 1’37.274 | -0.698 | 59 |
14 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1’40.056 | 1’37.316 | 1’37.465 | +0.149 | 58 |
15 | Bruno Senna | Williams-Renault | 1’38.783 | 1’37.425 | -1.358 | 51 | |
16 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’39.768 | 1’37.930 | 1’37.493 | -0.437 | 59 |
17 | Daniel Ricciardo | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’39.748 | 1’37.616 | 1’37.628 | +0.012 | 63 |
18 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1’40.153 | 1’38.293 | 1’37.831 | -0.462 | 59 |
19 | Vitaly Petrov | Caterham-Renault | 1’39.346 | 1’38.701 | -0.645 | 39 | |
20 | Heikki Kovalainen | Caterham-Renault | 1’41.071 | 1’38.990 | 1’39.198 | +0.208 | 68 |
21 | Timo Glock | Marussia-Cosworth | 1’42.330 | 1’39.651 | 1’39.796 | +0.145 | 47 |
22 | Charles Pic | Marussia-Cosworth | 1’44.500 | 1’40.753 | 1’40.048 | -0.705 | 62 |
23 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Renault | 1’40.298 | ||||
24 | Pedro de la Rosa | HRT-Cosworth | 1’44.227 | 1’40.343 | 1’41.499 | +1.156 | 53 |
25 | Narain Karthikeyan | HRT-Cosworth | 1’47.204 | 1’41.125 | 1’41.263 | +0.138 | 52 |
26 | Giedo van der Garde | Caterham-Renault | 1’42.521 | ||||
27 | Jules Bianchi | Force India-Mercedes | 1’44.118 |
2012 Chinese Grand Prix
- F1 fans’ videos from the Chinese and Bahrain races
- First win makes Rosberg the Chinese GP Driver of the Weekend
- Rosberg’s China win rated fifth-best race of last five years
- Rosberg becomes F1’s third second-generation race winner
- Vote for your Chinese Grand Prix driver of the weekend
Image © McLaren/Hoch Zwei
sozavele (@formula-1)
14th April 2012, 5:10
Felipe down there again, I think it is time Ferrari let him go.
BasCB (@bascb)
14th April 2012, 5:20
To be honest, this year its mostly the car being hopeless. Not easy to find another driver that can haul that into Q3 or the points.
sozavele (@formula-1)
14th April 2012, 5:23
But at least Alonso can get a top Q2 bottom – middle Q3, Massa is borderline Q1 but just gets to Q2.
BasCB (@bascb)
14th April 2012, 5:41
Sure, but that is not the point here, is it. Human Cloning is not working that well and fast to enable Ferrari to put him in 2 cars!
So instead they would have to find another driver, and there really is no one who would be available mid season and being as fast or faster. Or should they try and call up Rubens maybe?
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
14th April 2012, 6:17
@formula-1 Also, this is practice remember.
mixwell (@mixwell)
14th April 2012, 5:47
Massa is slow, but, can’t really judge it this time. would make much more sense if Alonso was P7 or something but even he is down there in P15, which means the car isn’t working for both of them.
The real problem lies in the fact that Alonso can score points even from P24 while Massa can either crash/slide/spin or finish in a real bad position. But nobody knows if some other driver can drive this car the way Alonso can. With that view, moving to Ferrari mid-season might turn out to be a big mistake (Look what happened when Fis moved to Ferrari, despite doing great in Force India) and maybe the next year you are going to be labelled as ‘test/reserve’ and replaced by yet another driver, possibly Kubica.
BasCB (@bascb)
14th April 2012, 5:22
It surely looks like McLaren are still ahead. Lets hope Mercedes can at least get both cars on the first 2 rows and not fall back too far this time.
How long ago is it, that Webber outqualified Vettel (or another team mate?) 3 times in a row?
Nic Morley (@robocat)
14th April 2012, 5:24
2010 Spainish, Monaco, Turkish and Canadian Grand prixs.
BasCB (@bascb)
14th April 2012, 5:49
Ah, yes. The run of races that ended with Silverstone and THAT front wing!
Eric Morman (@lethalnz)
14th April 2012, 5:28
i would like to think they have gone for a better race set-up and are slightly down on qualifying speed, otherwise they may have been in front of McLaren, well i am hopping that is the case…
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
14th April 2012, 5:22
Ferrari very down on their qualifying chances:
http://twitter.com/InsideFerrari/statuses/191018135749541888
BasCB (@bascb)
14th April 2012, 5:29
Interesting that Sauber also note how they will struggle on top speed. Something with the Ferrari rear end?
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
14th April 2012, 6:26
I had noticed that they didn’t make much impact on the speed trap @bascb
Eric Morman (@lethalnz)
14th April 2012, 5:31
definitely a FAIL,
shame because we have a great battle up front and could have even been better…
sid_prasher (@)
14th April 2012, 6:04
Ferrari just better than the bottom 3? Surely not (I
hopepray)!raymondu999 (@raymondu999)
14th April 2012, 6:21
No combined best sectors?
Bogz
14th April 2012, 12:43
Go Ham