WilliamsF1 2nd & 3rd in opening Chinese practice

The lead up to the Chinese Grand Prix would see the return of Ralf Schumacher to driving, joined by Jacques Villeneuve who was signed up to drive with Renault for the final three races of the season. Dutchman Robert Doornbos was brought into the Jordan team, with Timo Glock replacing Pantano.

The first car to take to the track would be Minardi's Bas Leinders, joined by team-mate Zsolt Baumgartner. They would be joined the majority of the field on their installation lap. Doornbos would start his first lap, been the first man ever to record a time in an F1 car at the Shanghai circuit. He would finish his lap with a time of 1m:48.701.

With fifteen minutes of the session run Toyota's Ryan Briscoe would set a time of 1m:41.097. He would improve this with a 1m:40.753. Doornbos would improve with a 1m:44.466 but Briscoe was miles ahead with a time of 1m:39.438. BAR's Anthony Davidson, in their blue '555' livery was out on a quick lap. Jaguar's Bjorn Wirdheim would set a time of 1m:42.534.

Davidson would go fastest by over a second, with a time of 1m:38.343. Briscoe would set a time of 1m:39.125. Jacques Villeneuve would make his return to the track with Renault. He was joined by Ralf. Davidson would improve his time with a 1m:38.014. Jacques would hardly set a quick time on his first lap, only managing a 1m:46.122. But for Ralf he would quickly set a fast time with a lap of 1m:38.733, to be behind Davidson. Timo Glock would move into
fifth with a 1m:41.319.

Villeneuve would improve with a 1m:42.115. Juan Pablo would make his first runs and would record the eleventh fastest time. Michael Schumacher would start his first quick lap, while Villeneuve would set a time of 1m:41.982. Rubens Barrichello had moved into fourth with a time of 1:39.242. Team-mate Michael would set a time to go fastest, with a time of 1m:37.300.

With thirty minutes of the session left Juan Pablo would move into second with a 1m:36.965. Barrichello would cross the line with a 1m:37.600. Alonso would move into sixth with a 1m:38.701. Villeneuve would improve to breaks the 1:40 mark with a 1m:39.920. Olivier Panis puts his Toyota in sixth with a 1m:38.403. But Anthony Davidson would move back to the top of the times with a 1m:36.199. Ralf was now in fourth with a 1m:37.079, while Button was up
to seventh with a 1m:37.521. Takuma Sato would move into tenth with a time of 1m:38.394.

With fifteen minutes left in the session neither McLaren driver had set a time. For Sauber's Giancarlo Fisichella he would jump up the times moving into third with a 1m:36.944. Villeneuve would return to the track and would improve on his earlier time, a lap of 1m:38.951 to be fourteenth. Both Coulthard and Raikkonen and Coulthard would take to the track, with David's first lap a time of 1m:38.639 for fourteenth.

The BAR team was showing that they were going to be competitive with Button moving into third with a 1m:36.688. Team-mate Davidson would set a stunning time of 1m:35.639 to now be 1.2 seconds faster than his nearest rival. Raikkonen would go twelfth fastest with a time of 1m:37.706. Button would improve to now be second with a time of 1m:36.475.

With the minutes counting down Raikkonen would set a 1m:37.102 for seventh, while Villeneuve was again in fourteenth with a 1m:37.789. Ralf Schumacher would come back out and would be a tenth up on Davidson after the opening sector. But he could not match the BAR drivers time finishing in second with a 1m:35.455. Ralf was to lose time in the final sector.

A 1m:36.394 would see Ryan Briscoe move up to into fifth. Juan Pablo would also come out for a final run setting a time of 1m:35.455 to finish just behind Ralf. Toyota's Ricardo Zonta would move into tenth with a lap of 1m:36.970. So with the session coming to an end both BMW WilliamsF1 drivers had made an encouraging start to the day been in second and third.