Shanghai: Ferrari's Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa have set the two fastest times in Saturday's pre-qualifying practice session at the Formula One Chinese Grand Prix. Alonso was the quickest around the Shanghai International Circuit with a time of 1 minute, 35.391 seconds - more than six tenths of a second faster than his teammate.
Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton was third fastest, though there were concerns for the team with teammate and the race's defending champion Nico Rosberg suffering an apparent suspension failure which prevented him setting a time on the soft-compound tire. The feuding Red Bull pair Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber was fourth and fifth fastest respectively, ahead of Force India's Adrian Sutil and Lotus' Kimi Raikkonen.
The rivalry between Alonso and Massa also has a slight edge this weekend, with Massa surprisingly having qualified ahead of Alonso, Ferrari's No. 1, in each of the past four races. No teammate has ever out-qualified Alonso five straight times, but Massa has a chance to do that later Saturday. Worryingly for the other teams, the Ferraris did far fewer laps in the practice session, indicating the team is very comfortable with its set-up.
McLaren's Jenson Button and Sergio Perez were eighth and ninth on the timesheets, with the team still struggling to unlock the potential of its cutting-edge new design. Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg was tenth fastest
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