Sebastian Vettel again led the times in Shanghai on Saturday morning, but as McLaren continued to breathe down the world champion’s neck his team mate met more trouble.
Vettel finally lapped in 1m 34.968s as the times tumbled despite much cooler, overcast conditions. Jenson Button led the McLaren pursuit this time, 0.208s behind with 1m 35.176s. Lewis Hamilton was third, 0.405s behind, with 1m 35.373s. Both McLaren drivers wore distinctive black and red overalls as part of a new Hugo Boss marketing initiative.
Mercedes took a step forward again, with Nico Rosberg fourth on 1m 35.677s, then came Fernando Alonso in fifth after a late burst brought his times down to 1m 35.818s. That was only just ahead of Ferrari team mate Felipe Massa’s 1m 35.971s, even though the Spaniard had the sole advantage of a new aero package.
Vitaly Petrov was Renault’s lead runner on 1m 36.098s in seventh, ahead of Adrian Sutil’s Force India on 1m 36.125s, Mercedes’ Michael Schumacher on 1m 36.141s and Force India’s Paul di Resta on 1m 36.370s. Nick Heidfeld didn’t go off this time, but was down in 11th in the second Renault with a lap of 1m 36.404s, then came the evenly matched Saubers of Kamui Kobayashi and Sergio Perez on 1m 36.582s and 1m 36.596s. Sebastien Buemi was again Toro Rosso’s leader in 14th with 1m 36.717s, with Jaime Alguersuari 16th on 1m 36.953s. Between them, Mark Webber was stranded on 1m 36.896s after technical issues prevented him doing the final runs.
Williams were again in trouble and lacking speed, with Rubens Barrichello on 1m 37.007s ahead of Pastor Maldonado on 1m 37.304s, then there was a gap to Heikki Kovalainen who was again the faster Lotus driver. The Finn lapped in 1m 38.176s. Jarno Trulli, who spun in Turn 11, was next with 1m 38.739s. A lot of overnight head-scratching got the Virgins going a lot better today, with Timo Glock lapping in 1m 39.938s to narrowly head team mate Jerome D’Ambrosio on 1m 39.998s. The HRTs were at the back again, but ran reliably as Tonio Liuzzi got down to 1m 40.593s ahead of team mate Narain Karthikeyan on 1m 40.881s.
Besides Trulli, Hamilton, D’Ambrosio, Schumacher, Karthikeyan, Sutil and Webber all had minor off-road moments, either through pushing too hard or because their tyres had not warmed up fully.
Credit: Formula One Administration Ltd (www.formula1.com)
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