Kimi and Seb 1st and 2nd in P2
FP2The two Ferraris topped the time sheet at the end of the second free practice session for the Chinese Grand Prix, during which they worked on a programme aimed at preparation for Sunday’s race. The track had rubbered in since the morning and in these conditions Kimi Raikkonen posted a 1.36.896 ahead of Sebastian Vettel’s 1.37.005. Behind them came the Mercedes duo of Nico Rosberg (1.37.133) and Lewis Hamilton (1.37.329.) Sebastian started the session on the Medium tyres, with Kimi running the Softs, after which they both switched to the Supersofts. The third and final hour of free practice in Shanghai gets underway tomorrow at noon.
FP1Two red flags to remove track debrisThere were some on-track hiccoughs in Shanghai, as the third round of the Formula 1 World Championship got underway this morning, with the first free practice session for the Chinese Grand Prix.Running time featured two lengthy interruptions as the track had to be cleaned to remove debris from Felipe Massa’s Williams and Kevin Magnussen’s Renault, for reasons currently under investigation. First out on track was Sebastian Vettel, who ran the entire session on the Soft tyres, setting the third fastest time of 1.38.665, behind the Mercedes duo of Nico Rosberg (1.38.037 ) and Lewis Hamilton (1.38.183.) Kimi Raikkonen was fifth fastest with a 1.39.155 and, unlike his team-mate, he alternated between the Medium and Soft compounds.
Kimi Raikkonen: “It has been quite a difficult day overall, I was struggling to get the grip on the tires probably due to the wind. I was sliding a lot and this feeling was not very nice. When I put the Supersofts they seemed to work better, I had more grip and this helped to have a pretty good lap. We’ll see how the weather conditions turn out to be tomorrow, we’ll try to make a good day and then get the maximum out of the race.”
Sebastian Vettel: “Friday is not so important in terms of position but in terms of feeling. We had a decent day and the feeling with the car was ok, but we can still improve, especially the balance. Tonight we’ll have a lot of work to do, in order to get on top of everything. For sure to go for pole is always our goal, but it’s only Friday so I would’t stress too much. This track is quite brutal on tyres, I was sliding a lot and there was a lot of degradation. I looked at Kimi’s data and saw where he was faster. This afternoon we had different programmes and this is useful to make a comparison because we can learn from each other.”
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