Hello and welcome to our coverage of the weekend's racing activities at the Shanghai International circuit, China!

The second practice session will get under way in two and a half hours time. See you then.

Heidfeld, Massa, Perez, Maldonado, Petrov and Buemi complete the top 10.

And that's the last action of the opening practice session, with the Red Bulls of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber setting the early benchmarks, followed by the McLarens of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button.

Karthikeyan locks up at Turn 14 and runs into the grass.

Button continues to head around the track while McLaren team-mate Hamilton appears to have finished his morning's work.

Maldonado's car is eventually rescued by marshals who push it off track where it can be lifted back to the garages and the session continues, with six minutes left.

Williams team: "It is so smoggy here you can barely see to the end of the pit lane."

The yellow flag is back out as Maldonado spins at high speed! His Williams is now beached on the kerb at Turn 5.

Virgin on Twitter: "Just been double checking some hydraulics on Timo's car but all looks good."

Alonso quickly improves with a 1:41.434 to move up to 10th.

Alonso posts a 1:42.464 to sit in 17th after his first timed lap of the session.

Ferrari put Alonso out on his first proper lap of the day.

Di Resta has a little spin onto the asphalt run-off area but he is able to rejoin the circuit and continue his lap before heading back to the pits.

So, Vettel leads so far, ahead of Webber, Hamilton, Button and Heidfeld.

Heidfeld's Renault has been cleared off the track and we're back under way.

The yellow flag is out with Heidfeld's Renault stranded at Turn 10.

Heidfeld spins and he slams into the barrier, sustaining extensive damage to the nose of his Renault.

But if that KERS problem persists, that would be a huge blow to McLaren, who really need it if they are to challenge Red Bull this weekend.

Button tells his team that his McLaren's KERS has a problem. The response is that he needs to allow it to cool down a little.

And sure enough it's Vettel who speeds round quickest once again, the world champion posting a 1:38.739.