Rosberg tops dramatic FP1 in China

Nico Rosberg set the fastest time of a dramatic first practice session for the Chinese Grand Prix which was hit by tyre problems.

Felipe Massa was the first driver to suffer a tyre problem, with bits of debris appearing to come off the left rear corner of his car at Turn 1 and then the Williams spinning at Turn 6 with a punctured tyre. On his second run, Massa again suffered the same problem as he limped along the back straight with a flat left rear tyre.

Kevin Magnussen was following close behind Massa and his left rear suspension had collapsed along the same back straight, thought he was also able to recover to the pits. With both cars running soft tyres, Pirelli immediately investigated the problems.

Pirelli quickly reported the Williams problem to be "connected to technical trouble", with a rim issue suspected. The tyre manufacturer also suspect debris caused Magnussen's failure, with a long track inspection taking place under red flags which results in a total of 33 minutes of running being lost.

Running resumed with eight minutes of the session remaining, with the majority of drivers heading back out on soft tyres and suffering no further problems.

In that time Rosberg went quickest with a 1:38.037, but he then slowed on track and complained his car had gone in to "limp home mode". The German was advised he could change gear as it was a suspected power unit issue which was slowing him.

Lewis Hamilton was second fastest, 0.146s slower than his team-mate having suffered two spins at Turn 11 early in the session. Sebastian Vettel was third fastest - half a second adrift of Hamilton - with Daniel Ricciardo, Kimi Raikkonen and Daniil Kvyat rounding out the top six.

Jenson Button was an encouraging eighth fastest for McLaren with team-mate Fernando Alonso in 12th. Alonso was taking part having received provisional clearance from the FIA doctors as he continues his recovery from fractured ribs, but the Spaniard was visibly cautious climbing in to his car and faces further tests after the session.

Aside from Magnussen and Massa, Esteban Gutierrez again suffered reliability problems and also failed to set a time. The Haas driver was hit by an electrical issue which ended his running after just two laps as the team switched focus to FP2.

AS IT HAPPENED: Chinese Grand Prix - FP1

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