F1: Mercedes engines dominate free practice in Shanghai

Actually, not right at the back Sutil and Fisichella were 14th and 17th respectively with Kubica (who is playing with KERS for the first time in a competitive situation), Jakakima and Picket being behind them.

Friday is not, generally, a good guide as to how the weekend will go, although the BrawnGP cars of Button and Barrichello have had a tendency to go fast whenever they see a bit of tarmac.

And so it was today, although the McLarens conspired to spoil the party - with Lewis Hamilton coming top of the timings - roughly a tenth quicker than Button, who was roughly a tenth quicker than Barrichello who was roughly a tenth quicker than Kovalainen. Behind them - again roughly a tenth away, was Webber in his Renault powered Red Bull and five hundredths behind him Trulli's Toyota.

The fastest Ferrari was a Torro Rosso with Sebastien Bordais: he's struggling to justify his place already this season - and the fastest Ferrari in a Ferrari chassis was Raikkonen - about eight tenths behind Hamilton. Massa was 15th quickest - or sixth slowest if you prefer - more than a second slower than Hamilton.

But it's almost a tradition that Ferrari don't push the pace on Friday: they use the day as a part of their testing programme, and gather data which they generally use to very good effect come qualifying. Going fast in practice is not a priority for them - after all, there's no points available and there's a good chance that, with a green track, someone is going to hurl the car at the scenery and cause a lot of very inconvenient work.

And with this year's heavy restrictions on testing, it's equally likely that teams will use Friday to trying out new parts and try to conserve engines and gearboxes - the latter of which have to last four races but several have already been replaced due to component failure.