Shanghai, 18 April 2014: With new Ferrari team principal Marco Mattiacci looking on, Fernando Alonso set the quickest time of the opening practice session at the Shanghai International Circuit an overcast and cool day in Shanghai even as Sahara Force India completed its Fridaypractice programme ahead of Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix.

Nico Hulkenberg was fifth fastest while Sergio Perez, who finished third in the previous race in Bahrain, could only manage a 15th fastest time.

Alonso’s lap was 0.398 quicker than second-placed Nico Rosberg and almost a full second clear of third-placed Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull Racing.

Rosberg’s team-mate Lewis Hamilton, winner of the last two grands prix, was eighth- fastest in the session, which was held in cool conditions. The Briton finished the session 1.7s adrift of Alonso and ended his session early with a balance problem.

World champion Sebastian Vettel was also significantly slower than his team-mate, the German finishing a second down on Ricciardo.

Mclaren’s Jenson Button was fourth fastest ahead of Nico Hulkenberg and the second McLaren of Kevin Magnussen.

Nico Hulkenberg, who is looking for a good race this week-end to sustain his third placing inthe driver's championship said after FP1: “It was quite a smooth day in terms of completing our programme and working through the job list. There is still work to do on the set-up and some things we can try to optimise the car ahead of tomorrow, but on the whole I’m satisfied with what we learnt today. The tyre work went okay and we have all the data that we need on the soft and the medium tyres to prepare for the rest of the weekend.”

A number of teams and drivers encountered problems during the session, most notably Kimi Raikkonen. The Ferrari driver completed just one installation before he retired to the garage where for the rest of the session his crew set about fixing a problem with the front end of his car.

Sauber's Esteban Gutierrez didn’t take to the track until an hour into the session after he suffered a clutch issue on his Sauber C33. Elsewhere, Marussia’s Jules Bianchi had a fuel system problem following his installation lap and sat out the bulk of the session before emerging for a short run at the end of the 90 minutes.

On track there were brief incidents for Pastor Maldona, who spun his Lotus in Tunr 9 early on, and Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat who had a spin in Turn One.

2014 Chinese Grand Prix – Free Practice 1 Times

1 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:39.783 20

2 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:40.181 0.398 16

3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 1:40.772 0.989 23

[caption id="attachment_2860" align="alignright" width="300"] Nico Hulkenberg was 5th fastest in Shanghai on Friday. A Sahara Force India image[/caption]

4 Jenson Button McLaren 1:40.970 1.187 23

5 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:41.175 1.392 16

6 Kevin Magnussen McLaren 1:41.366 1.583 20

7 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:41.505 1.722 26

8 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:41.560 1.777 9

9 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 1:41.629 1.846 19

10 Felipe Massa Williams 1:41.699 1.916 14

11 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:41.977 2.194 23

12 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:42.090 2.307 24

13 Felipe Nasr Williams 1:42.265 2.482 13

14 Giedo van der Garde Sauber 1:42.615 2.832 16

15 Sergio Perez Force India 1:42.733 2.950 13

16 Pastor Maldonado Lotus 1:43.731 3.948 22

17 Kamui Kobayashi Caterham 1:44.038 4.255 16

18 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 1:44.162 4.379 17

19 Jules Bianchi Marussia 1:44.270 4.487 7

20 Max Chilton Marussia 1:44.782 4.999 20

21 Marcus Ericsson Caterham 1:44.835 5.052 22

22 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari No Time 1

eom/Courtesy FIA