Free practice 1

Hello and welcome to ESPN's live coverage of the Chinese Grand Prix weekend. First practice will take place in half an hour's time, but something tells me the Friday press conferences are likely to be just as entertaining today...

After a three week break since the now infamous Red Bull team orders row in Malaysia, everybody expected a line to be drawn under the matter yesterday as the team would seek to move on. However, while Mark Webber appeared to do so in the driver press conference, nobody told Sebastian Vettel one hour later...

Vettel continued to insist that he didn't understand the call in Malaysia and had apologised the team for ignoring orders, but then admitted in the same situation even if he understood the message he would still likely ignore the team again because Webber "didn't deserve" victory ahead of him

The comments were quite extraordinary from Vettel, who also admitted that his actions were "probably ... indirectly" pay back for previous incidents between the two drivers. Having said he wasn't sanctioned by the team, his admission that he'd be likely to do it again asks the question: Who's in charge at Red Bull?

I'm sure you'll all have opinions on the situation at Red Bull, so if you'd like to get in touch with us today you can do so either using the link above or via Twitter @ESPNF1

Anyway, to business this morning and FP1 is just over three minutes away.

As Laurence points out in his comment piece on the Red Bull situation, it would actually be great to see a Red Bull one-two in qualifying tomorrow. I'm already excited to see the two on track near each other even in practice today

Interestingly, with Vettel having admitted his actions in Malaysia were a form of pay back for a lack of help from Webber on previous occasions such as the Brazilian Grand Prix last year, when that was put to Webber he responded "you have to go back a lot further than that". Perhaps the team had kept a lid on things previously, but that's clearly no longer the case

John emails in simply: "LET THEM RACE !!!"

That's exactly what Red Bull intends to do; it looks like there will be no team orders there anymore

A driver change to inform you all about this morning is at Caterham, where Ma Qing Hua drives Charles Pic's car for FP1:

I'm not sure this happened at Red Bull this morning...

Daniel Ricciardo is the first man out on track, followed by Ma, Vergne, Bianchi and Gutierrez

Everyone heading out for installation laps on the medium compound tyre, which is the harder of the two available this weekend - softs are the option tyre

An interesting sensor on the engine cover of the Sauber during the installation lap; it looks something like a small missile attached to the side of the car

Massa heads out with flo-viz paint on his front wing, while Alonso returns with it in the same place

Rosberg continues on to a second installation lap, only his team-mate Lewis Hamilton has yet to head out. Mercedes' upgrades include new front and rear wings, brake ducts and cooling items

Rosberg is back in the pits and the track is empty. Still Hamilton who hasn't been out on track - he was feeling unwell yesterday and missed his media commitments

Red Bull might be providing some fantastic entertainment with its drivers at present, but it can still be very annoying the way in which it tries to use its mechanics to block the TV cameras from filming the car. A mechanic was removing a front wing camera and despite it being in clear view for a while the team then decides to crowd round and stand right in front of the FOM cameraman

Hamilton heads out and has the track to himself

And Hamilton pits again. Wasn't that fun?

Vergne breaks the silence in his Toro Rosso

Lots of work going on at Toro Rosso, so while Vergne is alone on track it looks like Ricciardo might not be out for a while

Vergne only completes one lap, but Hulkenberg is now on track

Robert emails in from Darwin to ask: "Not sure if this has been asked yet? What is the tyre selection for this weekend race in China?"

It's the medium and soft tyres this weekend

Hulkenberg pits and silence falls over the circuit again

Strangely, Hamilton is sitting at the back of the Mercedes garage, slightly slouched, with his helmet still on despite the engine cover being off his Mercedes. He's going nowhere for a while but doesn't appear to want to be seen...

Mario emails in to ask: "Is Felix da Costa around as a 3rd driver for Red Bull and Toro Rosso? If yes, what do you guys think about him???"

Indeed he is Mario - he's filling in for Sebastien Buemi this weekend as Buemi is taking part in the World Endurance Championship at Silverstone. Felix da Costa was very impressive as he won four of the final five World Series by Renault races last year but there was something slightly amiss with the treatment of the man he replaced - Lewis Williamson - there... Anyway, he still impressed and I was at the Abu Dhabi Young Driver Test last year where he did a good job and was clearly dialled in to the PR machine. He certainly won't be ruffling any feathers this weekend!

THREE CARS ON TRACK! Ma, Gutierrez and Hamilton are lapping right now. It's all very exciting

Button makes it a grand total of four cars for all of 20 seconds as Ma then pits

In genuinely exciting news, Laurence has just brought some sausage rolls to the commentary desk. They're not bad at all.

Gutierrez looks set to be the first man to set a time, over 30 minutes in to this session

Gutierrez nails the apex at the hairpin, appears to turn in slightly too early for the final corner but he gets through OK and crosses the line in 1:43.097. I doubt the corner-by-corner description was required, but there you go

Button goes fastest with a 1:41.798

Mario in Angola - who asked about Felix da Costa - has just jokingly mocked me for using the word "exciting" too often this morning. Just trying to get you guys interested in the first half hour of practice where nobody sets a time!

Button and Gutierrez both improve. Button fastest on a 1:41.308 and just 0.011s quicker than the Sauber

Ma's first time is a 1:51.075 and then he gets in Button's way through the high-speed direction change of turns 7 and 8

A big lock-up for Ma in to turn 11 - he only gets one set of tyres for the session so that will hurt

Dylan emails in to ask: "What's you thoughts on Adrian Sutil? Looks competitive in dry qualifying. Do you reckon he is on for a front 2/3 row start and a potential podium if it stays dry?"

I think Sutil has been very impressive so far this season since his return - and I thought the team should have gone with Bianchi - but I wonder if McLaren might jump it in qualifying trim this weekend. A podium might be out of reach, but a top six finish could be on the cards

Button has gone quickest with a 1:38.262. Bottas is 1.1s slower and Maldonado another half a second back

Di Resta goes second with a 1:38.961 - 0.2s quicker than his team-mate Sutil who missed the apex at the hairpin

Marco asks: "Does the Mclaren still have the same pull rod front suspension or do u think it has been altered for this race?"

Still pull-rod on the McLaren; it would be a huge job to change that during the season on the existing chassis. The team has a new floor this weekend - an area where Laurence thinks the MP4-28 needs work

Sutil improves to go second with a 1:38.661

Raikkonen gets the power down and starts a timed lap. Nine times set so far - make that 10 as van der Garde clocks the ninth quickest

Kimi is always straight on the pace (I made this point in Malaysia and he immediately went quickest). Right now, he's going quickest...

And as I publish that comment, Raikkonen is a touch late on the brakes in to the hairpin, runs wide and loses about 0.9s to Button in that sector alone. 3rd fastest - 0.7s off the quickest time

Vettel now on a timed lap, presumably as Red Bull asked

That line may be reused a number of times this weekend. Sutil goes quickest with a 1:38.125 while Massa jumps up to second with a 1:38.179

Raikkonen spins at turn nine - he just took too much speed in to the corner and ran a bit wide. No damage

Webber following Alonso on track and going quickly. Alonso goes fourth while Webber goes third - less than 0.1s covers the top three

Rob Smedley radios in to Massa to say "I'm just watching on the television and Kimi already has graining on his front tyres" to which Massa replies "Yeah, me too"

That doesn't stop Massa going quickest with a 1:38.095

Vettel goes third quickest, just 0.014s quicker than his team-mate

Rosberg goes quickest with a 1:37.872 having set the fastest final sector

Alonso goes second before Webber goes fastest with a 1:37.658

Hamilton misses his braking point and runs wide at the Turn 14 hairpin

Another lock-up for Hamilton in to the hairpin but he makes the corner and goes seventh - 0.5s off Webber's time

Tom emails in to ask: "What's the word and detail on Ma?"

Ma is well backed from China as the only Chinese driver anywhere near F1, and he's made free practice appearances for HRT before. He was well off the pace then but is now part of Caterham's GP2 set up. He didn't have the smoothest first weekend - 21st in race one and missing race two due to illness - but is doing a decent job so far today

After Vettel goes third quickest, Rosberg sets the fastest first and second sectors

Make that three fastest sectors and Rosberg goes quickest by over three quarters of a second: 1:36.904

Rosberg pit before that run to get his front wing adjusted, it seems to have worked. Hamilton goes second with a 1:37.367

Everyone has set times now and Ma is slowest - 7.4s off the pace and 2.3s slower than his team-mate

As I say that Ma improves - still slowest but now 6.6s behind Rosberg and 1.5s off van der Garde

Rosberg and Hamilton both improving... and Rosberg drops down to a 1:36.717

A 1:37.171 keeps Hamilton second

How much do teams strive for perfection? Well, Bianchi just tried stopping on his marks in the Marussia pit box but was told he was 100mm too far back and 100mm too far to the left

Hulkenberg improves to 13th with a 1:39.180

Oops - Gutierrez gets it wrong in to turn one and slides wide in to the gravel but is able to recover

25 minutes to go, just six cars on track at present

I mentioned Bianchi just now; he was so close to getting in to Q2 in Malaysia in the dry, but Marussia looks quite a bit further back from the midfield on this showing so far. Early days though

Maldonado runs wide at turn one - that Williams still looks a handful

With just one set of tyres being used by each driver, we're less likely to see improvements later in the session. Alonso struggles with the rear end in to turn 11 and is a second off the pace on this lap

Marco emails in to say: "I'm with you I think JB will be a lot closer to the front this race early times for the MP4-28 are good as the track only improves with every pass the cars make"

He also asks how far off Gutierrez Bianchi is - two seconds is the gap

Sutil with a personal best middle sector and he's 8th - 1.4s off the pace

Toto Wolff has told the BBC that Hamilton suffered an eye allergy yesterday but is fine today

Ricciardo's improved in 15th place with a new personal best final sector

Button dives down the inside of Hulkenberg in turn one having set a time 6s off the pace

A lot of work going on down at Ferrari with mechanics working underneath the front of Alonso's car

Di Resta has only completed 10 laps so he's improving having put a new floor on his Force India. He goes 10th with a 1:38.561

For those who like seeing our (very fragile) reputations get shattered by our predictions each weekend, Laurence has said Alonso will win this weekend while I've plumped for Hamilton

McLaren stacks its cars for front wing changes and to lay some rubber in the pit box

It seems to be a recurring theme up and down the pit lane now the tyres are past their best - pitting for a new front wing and then performing a burn out in the pit box. Lotus the latest to do so

Leigh emails in to say: "I get the feeling that during the race on Sunday Webber will have 19 rear gunners on the track and Vettel might have 1 if he's lucky, I think there will be a lot of Blue flags being waived for 3 turns before he finds drivers moving over …."

It was Grosjean in the Lotus pit, and here's the result:

Sutil with a big lock-up in to the Turn 14 hairpin while Gutierrez again runs wide at turn one - he just got a bit wide where it's even dustier

Radio message to Perez: "We're mainly interested in the ride, so no need to push in the corners"

The chequered flag is out and Chilton improves with his final lap to get within 0.1s of his team-mate Jules Bianchi

So as the drivers return to the pits under safety car conditions, Perez has gone off!

Perez gone straight in to the barrier (lightly) on the pit lane entry where Hamilton's 2007 championship hopes started to go up in smoke. A McLaren parked just a few yards away.

I said he went in lightly; it wasn't all that light. Perez just went in too fast, locked up and went straight on through the gravel and hit the barrier. He's broken the front wing, which is not the smartest way to end the session

The session ends with a Mercedes one-two, while Webber beats Vettel at Red Bull (had to mention their respective positions). Thanks for joining us and for all your questions and comments, the report is just going up and we'll be back with live coverage of FP2 at 1400 local time - so in just under two and a half hours. Bye for now.


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