Chinese Grand Prix 2012: Lewis Hamilton fastest in first practice in damp and grey Shanghai In posting a time of one minute 37.106seconds, Hamilton finished 1.010secs quicker than Rosberg, albeit 3.4secs slower than Sebastian Vettel's pole lap of last year. Rosberg's team-mate, seven-time champion Michael Schumacher, was 0.2secs down on his fellow German, with the duo followed by the Saubers of Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi. Webber ultimately finished 1.871secs adrift of Hamilton, who this weekend faces a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change. The issue was discovered earlier this week, with the team opting to run the old gearbox today ahead of changing it for tomorrow ahead of qualifying. The remainder of the field, spearheaded by reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel in seventh, were all at least two seconds down. That included Button who was only a thousandth of a second behind Vettel, but 2.093secs off of Hamilton, with the Toro Rosso pair of Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne completing the top 10, but with both 2.6secs off the pace. They were followed by the Ferraris of championship leader Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa nearly three seconds back. Three reserve drivers in Williams' Valtteri Bottas, Giedo van der Garde at Caterham and Force India's Jules Bianci were all given a run out, finishing 13th, 19th and 20th respectively. Lotus' Kimi Raikkonen, who struggled with a rear-wing issue, was left at the back of the field, the Finn 13.3secs down.