Vettel sets early pace

The 23-year-old Formula One world champion, chasing his fifth win in a row this weekend and third of a season he has so far dominated, lapped the monumental Shanghai circuit in one minute 38.739 seconds.

Australian team mate Mark Webber was second quickest on a smoggy morning in Shanghai with a time 0.615 slower than the German.

Both set a pace that left rivals McLaren, hoping to narrow the gap considerably after two second places, seemingly gasping for breath.

Lewis Hamilton was a massive 2.106 seconds slower than Vettel while Jenson Button, the 2009 world champion who won last year's race, was fourth and 2.201 off the pacesetting best after suffering KERS problems.

Renault's Nick Heidfeld, buoyed by third place in Malaysia last Sunday, was fifth on the timing screens despite bouncing off the kerbs and crashing out after an hour of the 90 minute session with only five laps to his credit.

Ferrari's Brazilian Felipe Massa was sixth, with the team carrying out aerodynamic tests to try and get to the bottom of their lack of pace, while Spaniard Fernando Alonso was only 12th fastest.

Team principal Stefano Domenicali, back at the helm following a flying visit home to Maranello for a post-race inquest after Malaysia, will be hoping for far better on Sunday.

Seven times champion Michael Schumacher, returning to the scene of his last win and podium finish with Ferrari in 2006, was 18th for Mercedes.

While he would only have been disappointed, there was satisfaction further down the timesheets for Italian Vitantonio Liuzzi who put his HRT ahead of a Virgin, a Team Lotus and Indian team mate Narain Karthikeyan.