Fernando Alonso gave new Ferrari boss Marco Mattiacci a promising start after setting the quickest time during the opening practice session for this weekend's Chinese Grand Prix.
Alonso was almost four tenths of a second faster than championship leader Nico Rosberg at a cool Shanghai International Circuit on Friday morning.
Daniel Ricciardo was the only other driver to get within a second of Alonso's time as he was third quickest for Red Bull, ahead of McLaren's Jenson Button.
Nico Hulkenberg was fifth quickest for Force India, with Kevin Magnussen in sixth and Jean-Eric Vergne in seventh.
Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and Felipe Massa rounded out the top 10.
A number of drivers suffered from technical problems during the session.
A clutch issue meant that Esteban Gutierrez did not emerge in his Sauber until the final 30 minutes of the session, while Jules Bianchi had a fuel system problem and managed just a few laps at the end of the running.
Kimi Raikkonen was less fortunate as he completed just a single installation lap.
Position | Number | Driver | Team | Time/Retired | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1:39.783 | 20 | |
2 | 6 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:40.181 | 0.398 | 16 |
3 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 1:40.772 | 0.989 | 23 |
4 | 22 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:40.970 | 1.187 | 23 |
5 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 1:41.175 | 1.392 | 16 |
6 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:41.366 | 1.583 | 20 |
7 | 25 | Jean-Eric Vergne | STR-Renault | 1:41.505 | 1.722 | 26 |
8 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:41.560 | 1.777 | 9 |
9 | 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 1:41.629 | 1.846 | 19 |
10 | 19 | Felipe Massa | Williams-Mercedes | 1:41.699 | 1.916 | 14 |
11 | 26 | Daniil Kvyat | STR-Renault | 1:41.977 | 2.194 | 23 |
12 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus-Renault | 1:42.090 | 2.307 | 24 |
13 | 40 | Felipe Nasr | Williams-Mercedes | 1:42.265 | 2.482 | 13 |
14 | 36 | Giedo van der Garde | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:42.615 | 2.832 | 16 |
15 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 1:42.733 | 2.950 | 13 |
16 | 13 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus-Renault | 1:43.731 | 3.948 | 22 |
17 | 10 | Kamui Kobayashi | Caterham-Renault | 1:44.038 | 4.255 | 16 |
18 | 21 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:44.162 | 4.379 | 17 |
19 | 17 | Jules Bianchi | Marussia-Ferrari | 1:44.270 | 4.487 | 7 |
20 | 4 | Max Chilton | Marussia-Ferrari | 1:44.782 | 4.999 | 20 |
21 | 9 | Marcus Ericsson | Caterham-Renault | 1:44.835 | 5.052 | 22 |
22 | 7 | Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari | No time | 1 |