Formula One world champion Sebastian Vettel laid down a marker for his fifth win in a row by dominating both practice sessions for the Chinese Grand Prix on Friday. The 23-year-old Red Bull driver, who will be chasing his third victory of the season on Sunday, lapped the monumental Shanghai circuit with a best time of one minute, 37.688 seconds on a smoggy afternoon with few spectators in attendance.
"We found a good rhythm and we're happy with the car," the German said. "There's still a lot to do and I think it will be tight tomorrow and on Sunday, so we'll look where we can improve. But today we had no big issues." McLaren's Lewis Hamilton was 0.166 adrift, a big improvement on the morning that saw him more than two seconds off the Red Bulls' pace.
Vettel's Australian team mate Mark Webber had been second fastest in the morning but was only 10th after the break. Both Red Bulls looked in a class of their own after the garages opened for first practice at the track outside Shanghai, with Hamilton third but a massive 2.106 seconds slower. Jenson Button, the 2009 world champion who won last year's race, was 2.201 off the pacesetting best in the morning after his McLaren suffered KERS problems but bounced back to end the day just 0.247 off Vettel's best.