Chinese GP - Practice Session 1 - Red Bull domination continues

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Friday Practice Session - 1, UBS Chinese Grand Prix, Shanghai International Circuit, Shanghai

Red Bull after successful races in Australia and Malaysia, they come again in flying colors to China.

Sebastian Vettel setting the time ahead of his team mate by 6tenth of a second faster shows his willingness to set the record for 3 successive wins in the season opener after 2004 stint of Michael Schumacher.

Lewis Hamilton in his Mclaren was 2sec slower than the Vettel's Red Bull in third.

But before continuing look at the bottom of the table with HRT closing their gap and lapping almost equal to virgin after their upgrades to F111. HRT's continues improved performance from Australia to China is remarkable.

There were lot of accidents also on the track, Nick Heidfeld in 5th crashed his Renault with debutant Liuz Raiza also hitting the wall to damage his Lotus.

With 12 drivers were separated by 6tenths of second from each other from P3 to P15. This shows how much intense will be the competition during the race.

As the rain could also meant a change in fortune but one thing is sure that the race will be really exciting.

Felipe Massa was 6th while Fernando Alonso was only 12th in his Ferrari.

Then came the Pirelli Hero Sergio Perez in 7th where Kamui Kobayashi was only 19th. Behind Perez was another Rookie Pastor Maldonado. Williams are yet to complete the race in 2011. Rubens was ahead of Michael in 17th.

Vitaly Petrov was only 9th fastest with Sebastien Buemi in Toro Rosso completing the top 10. Nico Rosberg was the faster lad in Mercedes with Michael Schumacher only securing 18th fastest time and was 3.5sec adrift of Vettel.

Nico Hulkenberg come as a replacement for Adrian this time was 13th fastest while for Paul Di Resta, it was his first 1st Practice Session which secured him 15th position.

Heikki Kovalainen with improved Lotus was 14th with debutant Liuz Raiza in for Jarno Trulli was only 23rd.

Liuzzi in HRT separated the two Virgin in 21st position with time matching to Virgin pose a threat to Virgin and Lotus as HRT kept improving as the season continues.

Indian Driver Narain Karthikeyan was only 24th but with improved time.

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull - Renault	1min 38.739sec		23
2	Mark Webber	Red Bull - Renault	1min 39.354sec	0.615	27
3	Lewis Hamilton	Mclaren - Mercedes	1min 40.845sec	2.106	21
4	Jenson Button	Mclaren - Mercedes	1min 40.940sec	2.201	22
5	Nick Heidfeld	Renault	1min 40.987sec	2.248	5
6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1min 41.046sec	2.307	25
7	Sergio Perez	Sauber - Ferrari	1min 41.189sec	2.450	20
8	Pastor Maldonado	Williams - Cosworth	1min 41.222sec	2.483	20
9	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	1min 41.231sec	2.492	16
10	Sebastien Buemi	STR - Ferrari	1min 41.328sec	2.589	21
11	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes GP	1min 41.361sec	2.622	23
12	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1min 41.434sec	2.695	15
13	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India - Mercedes	1min 41.494sec	2.755	20
14	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus - Renault	1min 41.579sec	2.840	13
15	Paul Di Resta	Force India - Mercedes	1min 41.610sec	2.871	18
16	Daniel Ricciardo	STR - Ferrari	1min 41.752sec	3.013	20
17	Rubens Barrichello	Williams - Cosworth	1min 41.939sec	3.200	25
18	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes GP	1min 42.301sec	3.562	23
19	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber - Ferrari	1min 43.792sec	5.052	20
20	Jerome d'Ambrosio	Virgin - Cosworth	1min 44.089sec	5.350	20
21	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT - Cosworth	1min 44.359sec	5.620	18
21	Timo Glock	Virgin - Cosworth	1min 44.438sec	5.699	11
23	Luiz Razia	Lotus - Renault	1min 44.542sec	5.803	9
24	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT - Cosworth	1min 45.019sec	6.280	23