Alonso heads Rosberg in FP1
Full FP1 times HERE
Fernando Alonso set the fastest time of the first practice session for the Chinese Grand Prix, beating Nico Rosberg by almost 0.4s.
Watched by new Ferrari team principal Marco Mattiacci, Alonso was quickest for the majority of the session on a 1:39.783 and enjoyed an advantage of a second for the bulk of that time before Rosberg improved in the final ten minutes. Daniel Ricciardo was third for Red Bull, 0.989s slower than Alonso and 0.2 ahead of Jenson Button's McLaren.
Nico Hulkenberg was fifth quickest for Force India with the second McLaren of Kevin Magnussen in sixth. Lewis Hamilton suffered from a reliability issue for Mercedes as he completed just nine laps, ending the session 1.7s slower than Alonso.
It wasn't a completely smooth morning for Ferrari, however, as Kimi Raikkonen failed to run following his installation lap. Raikkonen was seen climbing out of the car immediately after returning to the garage and never got back out on track throughout the 90-minute session.
The teams were greeted with very cool conditions with air temperature failing to climb above 14C, and that led to a number of spins and off-track excursions due to cold tyres. Pastor Maldonado span at Turn 9 early on after strangely been off the track on approach, while Daniil Kvyat had two spins on his own; one at Turn 1 and then another later at the Turn 14 hairpin.
Mercedes appeared to struggle with the colder temperatures, with Rosberg locking up and running wide at Turn 6 after completing his fastest lap as the medium tyres were subjected to track temperatures lower than 20C throughout.
The two reserve drivers running in FP1 - Felipe Nasr for Williams and Giedo van der Garde at Sauber - finished the session 13th and 14th respectively, with van der Garde quicker than team-mate Esteban Gutierrez.
