Summary Ferraris did far fewer laps in practice session, indicating the team is comfortable with its set-up.
SHANGHAI (AP) - 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.
