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McLaren/Michelin test driver Pedro de la Rosa posted the fastest time on the
opening day of the season's 19th - and final - world championship grand prix
at the Shanghai International Circuit.
 The
Spaniard lapped the 5.451-kilometre (3.424-mile) track in 1m 32.854s this
afternoon, 0.143s clear of fellow test driver Ricardo Zonta (Toyota).
Kimi Räikkönen (Team McLaren Mercedes) was third on aggregate and swiftest
of the regular racers, on 1m 34.092s. World champion Fernando Alonso
(Renault, fourth) led the remaining Michelin runners, ahead of Juan Pablo
Montoya (Team McLaren Mercedes, fifth), Giancarlo Fisichella (Renault,
seventh), Mark Webber (BMW WilliamsF1 Team, eighth), Jenson Button
(BAR-Honda, ninth), Felipe Massa (Sauber-Petronas, 10th), David Coulthard
(Red Bull Racing, 11th) and Vitantonio Liuzzi (Red Bull Racing, 12th).
The Chinese Grand Prix is also the last scheduled event for team principals
Peter Sauber (who has sold out to BMW) and Paul Stoddart (whose Minardi
operation will become a Red Bull junior team in 2006).
Pierre Dupasquier, Michelin Motorsport Director:
"Although our engineers gathered plenty of data when we first raced on this
track in 2004, the rules governing tyres and aerodynamics have changed
significantly since then so we have had to factor in a new range of
parameters.
"There hasn't been a great deal of difference between our 'prime' and
'option' compounds today, but that is a by-product of the unexpectedly cool
track temperatures. Their individual performance characteristics should be
amplified in the warmer conditions we expect tomorrow - and that's something
our engineers will have to bear in mind when finalising compounds this
evening. From what we have seen so far, however, it is likely that both will
be used in the race.
"As for the damaged right -rear tyre on Christian Klien's Red Bull, it is
clear that he ran over something sharp and quite large. There was a
significant hole in the tread surface - and it was far too big to have been
caused by a shard of carbon." |
