Practice One - honours even between Ferrari and McLaren 05 Oct 2007
Ferrari and McLaren ended the first practice session for the Chinese Grand Prix separated by just 0.186s, as Kimi Raikkonen set the initial pace with a lap of 1m 37.024s to head Fernando Alonso (1m 37.108s), Felipe Massa (1m 37.128s) and Lewis Hamilton (1m 37.210s).
All four had off-track adventures; Raikkonen twice went off in the final left-hander, Turn 16, as did Alonso. Massa spun in Turn Two and Hamilton slid over the grass in Turn Eight right at the end.
Nico Rosberg pushed Williams ahead of BMW Sauber near the end when he lapped his FW29 in 1m 37.707s; Robert Kubica improved to 1m 38.055s for sixth, but could not dislodge him. There was bad news for Nick Heidfeld, as his F1.07 suffered an apparent engine failure. His lap of 1m 38.445s left him 10th.
Jarno Trulli pushed Toyota to seventh place with 1m 38.208s, ahead of Renault’s Giancarlo Fisichella (1m 38.217s, plus an off in Turn 16), and Williams tester Kazuki Nakajima (1m 38.270s).
Heikki Kovalainen was 11th in the second Renault on 1m 38.551s, followed by Toyota’s Ralf Schumacher (1m 38.661s), Red Bull’s David Coulthard (1m 38.700s), and Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello in the Hondas (1m 38.942s and 1m 38.945s).
Takuma Sato was 16th in 1m 39.238s for Super Aguri, ahead of Toro Rosso’s Tonio Liuzzi (1m 39.497s), Red Bull’s Mark Webber (1m 39.535s), Super Aguri’s Anthony Davidson (1m 39.539s), Toro Rosso’s Sebastian Vettel (1m 39.898s) and the closely-matched Spykers of Sakon Yamamoto (1m 40.126s) and Adrian Sutil (1m 40.149s).
