The 23 year-old German World Drivers’ Champion looks set to take home a fifth consecutive win at the Chinese Grand Prix
after two very promising practice sessions putting him on top of the table of fastest lap times. McLaren are closing the gap though and making up the time between themselves and the Red Bulls, with Lewis Hamilton within two tenths behind Sebastian Vettel and Jenson Button within three tenths behind the Red Bull driver. Vettel’s teammate Mark Webber had a rather slower practice session but managed to get fourth in the standings with the Mercedes duo coming in fifth and sixth. There were a few problems as well during practice with Alonso suffering from hydraulic problems placing him only 14th fastest during his run. The Renaults were having a few problems with Nick Hiedfeld who managed to crash twice in the same place making identical mistakes; sloppy driving from him damaged his front-wing and meant he didn’t have any period of long runs out on the track. Red Bull spent most of the practice focusing on tyre degradation, finding ways to improve their performance on long runs as Vettel’s tyres were wearing out after only 8 laps. Looking forward to finding out what happens in the race, this could be the one McLaren have been waiting for.