Lewis Hamilton Fastest in China Practice

Lewis Hamilton has gone fastest in session one of todays free practice. He followed that by topping the board by a comfortable three tenths of a second in session two.

Session One

Lewis hit the track and showed that he meant business this weekend, topping the times and outpacing his world championship rival Felipe Massa by four-tenths of a second.

Hamilton took charge just after the one hour mark and kept on extending his lead from then on.

Less than a tenth of a second covered positions two, three, and four (Felipe Massa, Kimi Raikkonen, and Heikki Kovalainen).

BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica, who still has a slim mathematical chance of winning the championship, was almost a second off the pace in fifth, while Fernando Alonso—who is finding the track easy and fresh from two consecutive wins—was sixth for Renault.

Session Two

Lewis continued to push hard in session two and managed to secure the top spot yet again, this time over Fernando Alonso.

Alonso's team mate, Nelson Piquet Jr., vaulted up the rankings to third with a very impressive lap.

Toyota and Jarno Trulli shocked us all as he drove a near perfect lap to clinch fourth, just ahead of Australian driver, Mark Webber, in his Red Bull.

The two Ferraris, who both looked well off pace, kept beneath the radar and finished with in sixth (Massa) and eighth (Raikkonen).

Although there were plenty of cars out on the circuit throughout the 90 minutes, most drivers were unable to improve on their early times.

Practice Session One Times

1.  HAMILTON      McLaren       1m35.630s
2.  MASSA         Ferrari       1m36.020s
3.  RAIKKONEN     Ferrari       1m36.052s
4.  KOVALAINEN    McLaren       1m36.103s
5.  KUBICA        BMW           1m36.507s
6.  ALONSO        Renault       1m36.661s
7.  HEIDFELD      BMW           1m37.040s
8.  BOURDAIS      Toro Rosso    1m37.070s
9.  PIQUET        Renault       1m37.180s
10. VETTEL        Toro Rosso    1m37.278s
11. WEBBER        Red Bull      1m37.491s
12. BUTTON        Honda         1m37.619s
13. NAKAJIMA      Williams      1m37.630s
14. COULTHARD     Red Bull      1m37.638s
15. ROSBERG       Williams      1m37.638s
16. GLOCK         Toyota        1m37.664s
17. BARRICHELLO   Honda         1m37.827s
18. TRULLI        Toyota        1m38.219s
19. SUTIL         Force India   1m38.285s
20. FISICHELLA    Force India   1m38.479s

Practice Session Two Times

1.  HAMILTON      McLaren       1m35.750s

2.  ALONSO        Renault       1m36.024s

3.  PIQUET        Renault       1m36.094s

4.  TRULLI        Toyota        1m36.159s

5.  WEBBER        Red Bull      1m36.375s

6.  MASSA         Ferrari       1m36.480s

7.  BOURDAIS      Toro Rosso    1m36.529s

8.  RAIKKONEN     Ferrari       1m36.542s

9.  HEIDFELD      BMW           1m36.553s

10. ROSBERG       Williams      1m36.556s

11. GLOCK         Toyota        1m36.615s

12. KUBICA        BMW           1m36.775s

13. KOVALAINEN    McLaren       1m36.797s

14. COULTHARD     Red Bull      1m36.808s

15. VETTEL        Toro Rosso    1m36.925s

16. NAKAJIMA      Williams      1m36.975s

17. FISICHELLA    Force India   1m37.473s

18. SUTIL         Force India   1m37.617s

19. BUTTON        Honda         1m37.800s

20. BARRICHELLO   Honda         1m37.904s

With thanks to ITV Sport for the times