Raikkonen sets hot pace

Kimi Raikkonen came out on top in a tight first practice session as the Ferrari driver fights to keep his faint worldchampionship hopes alive at the Chinese Grand Prix this weekend.

The Finn trails leader Lewis Hamilton by 17 points with two races left.

But the McLaren star faces possible punishment for erratic driving behind the safety car at the Japanese Grand Prix, so victory at the Shanghai International Circuit could catapult Raikonnen back into the running.

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The Finn’s time, 1m 37.024 secs, was the fastest of the morning run, 0.084secs ahead of McLaren’s Fernando Alonso with Felipe Massa third and Lewis Hamilton fourth.

There was little action in the first 30 minutes before Hamilton produced the quickest time of the session, but Raikkonen then edged out the McLaren driver.

The Brit posted an immediate riposte with a time of 1min 37.524secs to shave almost three tenths of a second off the Finn’s time.

Alonso’s opening effort was well outside his team-mate’s mark as he ran off the track at the final turn. Raikkonen was having difficulty negotiating turn 16, twice running wide.

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But he recorded a lap of 1min 37.595secs, just fractions behind Hamilton.

Fellow Ferrari driver Felipe Massa surpassed the 22-year-old by just 0.014secs.

Then Nick Heidfeld’s smoking BMW Sauber ground to a halt on the start-finish straight with just over half an hour remaining.

Alonso improved his best time to just 0.046secs behind that of Massa’s before Hamilton emphatically again went quickest of all with a lap of 1min 37.210secs.