McLaren’s Jenson Button set the early pace in Shanghai FP1, beating Nico Rosberg to the quickest time by +0.071s.
The focus of practice one was on Sebastian Buemi though, he experienced a bizarre accident which saw both his front wheel’s fly off the car under braking, causing the Swiss driver to fly into the gravel trap after the long back straight.
That caused a red flag 75-minutes into the session.
Lewis Hamilton came in behind Rosberg, ahead of Sebastian Vettel, the Red Bull proving it’s pace with Webber in 8th.
Fernando Alonso suffered an engine failure causing him to retire after just six laps. That isn’t good news for Ferrari who have already used three engine out of their eight allocated for the season.
Times for Friday practice one:
| 01 | J. Button | McLaren | 1:36.677 | 15 |
| 02 | N. Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:36.748 | 17 |
| 03 | L. Hamilton | McLaren | 1:36.775 | 19 |
| 04 | S. Vettel | Red Bull | 1:37.509 | 14 |
| 05 | R. Kubica | Renault | 1:37.601 | 20 |
| 06 | V. Petrov | Renault | 1:37.716 | 17 |
| 07 | M. Schumacher | Mercedes | 1:37.745 | 25 |
| 08 | M. Webber | Red Bull | 1:37.980 | 17 |
| 09 | A. Sutil | Force India | 1:38.008 | 13 |
| 10 | F. Massa | Ferrari | 1:38.098 | 19 |
| 11 | J. Alguersuari | Toro Rosso | 1:38.161 | 19 |
| 12 | K. Kobayashi | Sauber | 1:38.375 | 21 |
| 13 | P. de la Rosa | Sauber | 1:38.421 | 19 |
| 14 | N. Hulkenberg | Williams | 1:38.569 | 20 |
| 15 | P. di Resta | Force India | 1:38.618 | 26 |
| 16 | R. Barrichello | Williams | 1:38.678 | 17 |
| 17 | S. Buemi | Toro Rosso | 1:39.939 | 5 |
| 18 | J. Trulli | Lotus | 1:41.531 | 22 |
| 19 | H. Kovalainen | Lotus | 1:41.779 | 23 |
| 20 | T. Glock | Virgin | 1:41.830 | 20 |
| 21 | L. di Grassi | Virgin | 1:42.181 | 27 |
| 22 | B. Senna | HRT | 1:43.875 | 23 |
| 23 | K. Chandhok | HRT | 1:43.949 | 20 |
| 24 | F. Alonso | Ferrari | no time | 6 |
All timing unofficial
