EL1: Hamilton in the lead ahead of Rosberg in China

Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg took matters into their own hands during the first practice session of the Chinese GP in Shanghai. Lewis Hamilton set the benchmark time in 1'39"033, beating his teammate Nico Rosberg by half a second. The pilots Mercedes sought the limits of the W06 Hybrid early on by going out of track limits on several occasions.

The Silver Arrows seem hard to find since Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari), the closest to the Mercedes, finished more than a second behind the best time, ahead of his teammate Kimi Räikkönen by 5 tenths. Felipe Nasr (Sauber) completes the top five ahead of Red Bull de Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat, the Russian two seconds behind the reigning world champion.

The Williams de Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa complete the top ten between the Toro Rosso de Carlos Sainz Jr and Pastor Maldonado's Lotus. Max Verstappen (Toro Rosso) follows in 12th place ahead of Jenson Button (McLaren-Honda) and Marcus Ericsson (Sauber). Jolyon Palmer (Lotus), who replaced Romain Grosjean in this session, rose to 15th place ahead of the Force India of Sergio Pérez. The Indian team remains behind since Nico Hulkenberg is only 18th between Fernando Alonso and Manor by Will Stevens and Roberto Merhi.

The 2nd practice session for the Chinese GP will be followed from 8 a.m. live on Canal+ Sport.