As Mark Webber conceded yesterday following his win here last year, it is easy
enough to “create a train” behind when tyre management is of the
essence.
As for Rosberg’s team-mate Lewis Hamilton, on pole in China to give Mercedes
three in a row overall, the Briton had to settle for fifth-quickest, just
over a quarter of a second adrift.
Sandwiched in between the duo were Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, on a high after
winning last time out in his home country of Spain and aiming to become the
first man here to win with three different teams.
Alonso was just 0.087secs adrift of Rosberg, followed closley by the Lotus of
Romain Grosjean and Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa.
Behind Hamilton was Monaco specialist Pastor Maldonado in a so-far pitiful
Williams that has failed to glean a single point from the opening five
races.
The Venezuelan, however, was eight-tenths of a second behind Rosberg, with
Webber in his Red Bull in close attendance, along with McLaren duo Jenson
Button and Sergio Perez.
As for reigning triple world champion and current title pace-setter Sebastian
Vettel, the Red Bull star was 10th, 1.185secs off the pace, but these are
very early days in the grand scheme of things.
Kimi Raikkonen, four points behind Vettel in the title standings, was also
right behind the German on track as the Finn was only 11th-quickest in his
Lotus.
Unusually, the Force India pair of Paul Di Resta and Adrian Sutil failed to
make an impression as they were down in 12th and 13th, both hovering around
1.4secs behind Rosberg.
Beyond them there was a gap then to the likes of Sauber, Toro Rosso, Caterham
and Marussia, with the latter pairing of Jules Bianchi and Max Chilton
bringing up the rear.
British rookie Chilton, in particular, was slowest of all, finishing four
seconds down.
First practice times:
1 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes 1min 16.195secs
2 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari 1:16.282
3 Romain Grosjean (Fra) Lotus 1:16.380
4 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 1:16.394
5 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) Mercedes 1:16.469
6 Pastor Maldonado (Ven) Williams 1:16.993
7 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 1:17.020
8 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren 1:17.129
9 Sergio Perez (Mex) McLaren 1:17.378
10 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull 1:17.380
11 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Lotus 1:17.509
12 Paul Di Resta (Gbr) Force India 1:17.548
13 Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India 1:17.625
14 Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Sauber 1:18.193
15 Jean-Eric Vergne (Fra) Toro Rosso 1:18.454
16 Esteban Gutierrez (Mex) Sauber 1:18.754
17 Valtteri Bottas (Fin) Williams 1:18.830
18 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) Toro Rosso 1:19.067
19 Giedo van der Garde (Ned) Caterham 1:19.203
20 Charles Pic (Fra) Caterham 1:19.438
21 Jules Bianchi (Fra) Marussia 1:19.773
22 Max Chilton (Gbr) Marussia 1:20.225
(Edited by Lucy Kinder)