Shanghai, FP1: Rosberg quickest as red flags interrupt practice

Nico Rosberg set the fastest time of opening practice for the Chinese Grand Prix, in a session that was red-flagged for a long period due to a number of unrelated tyre issues.

The tyre problems began early in the session when the left-rear of Felipe Massa’s Williams began to come apart as he went about his first run. The tyre was eventually shed as he went into Turn 6 and the Brazilian was pitched into a spin. He managed to make it back to the pits but with debris scattered across the track, the red flags briefly appeared.

After a spell in his team’s garage Massa reappeared with about half an hour left on the clock in the session. However, he soon suffered another left rear failure, the tyre apparently being damaged by contact with a body part on his car.

Massa was followed, on track and into trouble, by Renault’s Kevin Magnussen.

The Dane suffered a suspension failure on the same back straight and he too limped back to the pits, where because both cars had been running soft tyres a Pirelli investigation immediately began.

At this point the red flags came out and there a long delay as more debris was cleared from the track and the tyre checks continued. Pirelli later confirmed that none of the failures was caused by a tyre issue.

With seven minutes left on the clock, Rosberg, who had been second fastest behind team-mate Lewis Hamilton before the stoppage, emerged for a run on the soft tyres.

He was joined by Hamilton but it was the German who made the most of the compound, setting a time of 1:38.037 to take top spot ahead of the Briton.

Hamilton was left with P2, just over a tenth adrift of the championship leader. Sebastian Vettel was third fastest, though the Ferrari driver was half a second behind Hamilton on the same soft tyres.

Rosberg, though, wasn’t immune to problems and as the session drew to a close, he was forced to make his way slowly back to the team’s garage in ‘limp home’ mode due to a suspected power unit issue.

Daniel Ricciardo was fourth fastest, just over a second behind Rosberg, with the Australian also setting his best time on soft tyres. Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen finished fifth ahead of Daniil Kvyat in the second Red Bull, Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz Jr, the McLaren of Jenson Button, Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg, and the second Toro Rosso of Max Verstappen.