Shanghai Practice 1: Alonso fastest early on

Fernando Alonso fastest in FP1

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso broke Mercedes’ stranglehold at the top by setting the fastest time in Friday’s first practice session for the Chinese Grand Prix.
Alonso completed 20 laps of the 5.4 kilometre Shanghai International Circuit to end the morning session with a best time of 1:39.783 seconds, as Ferrari’s new Formula One boss Marco Mattiacci looked on.
Nico Rosberg was second in his Mercedes with a time that was nearly four-tenths of a second off Alonso’s session-topping effort.
The German’s team mate Lewis Hamilton, gunning for a hat-trick of wins this weekend, set the eighth fastest time on a cool and overcast morning in Shanghai.
Daniel Ricciardo set the third quickest time in his Red Bull ahead of McLaren’s Jenson Button and Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg.

Nico Rosberg second fastest in FP1

McLaren rookie Kevin Magnussen set the sixth fastest time to make it four Mercedes-powered cars in the top six.
Reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel ended the session ninth.
Mercedes have won the opening three races of the season in dominating fashion, but Friday morning’s session was the first time since opening practice for the first race in Australia that a silver arrow car has not ended up at the top of the timesheets.
Both Hamilton and Rosberg put in a limited amount of running and set their fastest times in the opening 30 minutes of the session on a green track, with the team choosing to focus on longer runs later in the session.

Daniel Ricciardo third fastest in FP1

Kimi Raikkonen failed to set a time in the 90-minute session after his Ferrari developed mechanical issues, with the Finn only managing a single installation lap.
With track temperatures hovering in the high Celsius teens, several drivers struggled for grip and had off track moments in a largely uneventful session.
Pastor Maldonado in particular provided some amusement after he left the track and spun in his Lotus while making adjustments on his steering wheel.

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Time	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			1