Chinese F1 GP: Massa Quickest on Friday, Vettel only tenth.

FERRARI’S Felipe Massa was just under half-a-second faster than Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus during Friday’s second practice session at the Chinese Grand Prix.

Third fastest was Fernando Alonso followed by the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg and the Red Bull of Mark Webber.

Jenson Button (McLaren) was sixth, Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) seventh, Adrian Sutil (Force India) eighth, Paul Di Resta (Force India) ninth and Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull was tenth.

Slowest in the pack were the Caterham pair of Giedo van der Garde and Charles Pic – but hold on; slower still was Max Chiltin of Marusia.

For all Grand Prix weekends, Thursdays are set aside for two 90-minute practice sessions which are optional for all teams.

There is another one hour session on Saturday morning followed by Qualifying in the afternoon.

Drivers must run in at least one of the Saturday sessions to qualify for grid positions on race day Sunday.

Timings for the Friday session is not indicative of the competitiveness as the teams use it to test out suitability of tyres and driver and car settings to find out what works for the individual circuits.

Where they finish in terms of timing for the first session on Saturday will determine the order in which they battle it out for the top 10 grid positions for the final Qualifying session in the afternoon.

So, Sebastian Vettel fans are not unduly alarmed that their Teutonic hero is down as tenth fastest although he did complain of problems with vibrations and locking brakes.

The real battle for positions is yet to come on Saturday.

The race venue is the Shanghai International Circuit measuring 5.451 km which held its first GP in 2004.

The lap record is held by Michael Schumacher (remember him?) who lapped one circuit of the 56-lap race in 1 min 32.238 seconds in 2004.

Driver timings after Friday Practice China F1 GP 2013.

1.Felipe Mass (Ferrari) – 1 min 35.340 secs

2.Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus) – 1 min 35.492 sec

3.Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) – 1 min 35:755 secs

4.Nico Rosberg (Mercedes)

5.Mark Webber (Red Bull)

6.Jenson Button (McLaren)

7.Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)

8.Adrian Sutil (Force India)

9.Paul Di Resta (Force India)

10.Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull).