FORMULA 1 Live

08:30 Heikki Kovalainen sneaks in to the top 10 at the death - just when he needed a good one he pulled it out of the bag, and he's overshadowed Hamilton this time round.

08:29 Mark Webber now improves his time to go fourth, as almost every car gets out on to the track to get one more soft tyre flyer before they have to pack up for the day.

08:27 Rosberg is in - and he squeezes between the two Brawns to go second, just 25 thousandths slower than Button! What a great lap from te German, he seemed to hook everything together perfectly.

08:26 Just a few minutes left now, and Nico Rosberg is on a storming lap in the Williams - he's fastest after two sections!

8:23 Jenson Button has snuck out to complete another lap - and it's a brilliant one, shaving a full two-tenths off Barrichello's time to put him at the head of the pack. Brawn and Button are just so far ahead of the game at the moment that you wonder if anybody will catch them.

8:22 Just over seven minutes left now, and the Toyotas are out and looking for an improvement.

08:20 Neither Barrichello nor Button manages to improve their times as they come back out. German duo Nico Rosberg and Nick Heidfeld do improve, however, to 5th and 16th respectively.

08:17 Barrichello is back out on track, and though he's being timed at the moment he's taking this one fairly easy.

08:15 Lewis Hamilton is back out at the moment and putting ina few laps, but he's in the mid 1:37s for the most part. Seems like that early promise from the first practice session was just a mirage.

08:12 More dodgy-looking tyres come off various cars; this circuit is shredding rubber quite badly.

08:08 Are Renault holding something back in this session? Alonso has just finished a lap that looked clean and tidy, but he's still only 16th fastest. Is he practising with a heavy fuel load or on worn tyres?

08:07 A couple of interesting stats show that the best top speed belongs to the Force India of Adrian Sutil; while the quickest apex speed in the tough turn three is Giancarlo Fisichella.

08:05 A slow-mo replay of Button shows that one of his tyres looks a bit shredded on the front-right. Still, he's done a couple of dozen laps on it, so it's probably fair enough.

08:03 Once again, it's those Brawns leading the charge - though still Barrichello is quicker than his team-mate Button. Is there a more dis-spiriting sight for the other teams than to see the Button's untouchable once again? Or a more inspiring sight for the team's fans?

07:57 Barrichello crosses the line... and beats his own mark by just over a tenth of a second! 1:35.881, great stuff and a second and a half quicker than anyone went earlier on.

07:55 Barrichello is having a decent lap - then utterly nails the final sector to post the quickest lap! It's a 1:35.995, putting him ahead of the field... and he's quicker again in his next lap so far.

07:53 Ferrari's Felipe Massa puts his best lap of the session, cutting seven tenths off his fastest so far to get to ninth.

07:51 Still Vettel quickest, but bad news for former champ Fernando Alonso: he's now propping up the timings for the session.

07:45 The Renaults are having bad time today - Alonso 19th, Piquet dead last so far. Piquet looks particularly raggedy, slip-sliding through most of the corners.

07:43 Jarno Trulli puts in another good lap and looks like he might surpass Vettel's time until the final section sees him drop back. It seems that Vettel really nailed that last stretch, he seems to be a couple of tenths quicker through that section.

07:41 Red Bull's mechanics are standing around in the pits twiddling their thumbs a bit; they seem to have more or less nailed the settings, on current evidence.

07:37 BMW's Robert Kubica is another driver who's apparently struggling today. He's just 17th fastest at the moment as he completes a lap.

07:35 The track is a fair bit quieter now as most drivers are in the pits discussing settings with their mechanics and wondering what to tweak.

07:33 Vettel's flying lap is still the quickest of the session so far as we go past the half-hour mark.

07:29 Kimi Raikkonen is out on the track at the moment. Ferrari have been struggling badly this week - apparently they are having trouble balancing the car's handling. Raikkonen is just 15th fastest so far, two places below his team-mate Felipe Massa.

07:26 Hamilton's second flyer is a slight improvement in time despite locking up his back wheels on a corner, but Mark Webber puts in a 1:36.179 to go quickest... and then team-mate Sebastien Vettel trumps him by 12 thousandths of a second! Red Bull looking very good here just now, whipping through the corners with great pace.

07:25 Lewis Hamilton is finally out on the track, and despite using the hard tyre cruises effortlessly on his first full lap to be fourth quickest for the session so far.

07:23 Trulli puts in another flying lap - 1:36.361, which is within spitting distance of last year's pole time. He's on the softest rubber compound at the moment, and is clearly looking to fine-tune his qualifying speed.

07:21 Jarno Trulli in his Toyota - one of the double-decker diffuser cars - has put in a flying lap that goes under 1:37 for the first time.

07:18 Nico Rosberg puts in a very nice lap, a 1:37.346 that means he's the quickest driver of the week so far. Nico Rosberg talked us through the Shanghai International circuit earlier on -

07:16 Jenson Button is out on the circuit, but his first lap is a taking-it-easy warm-up. Let's see if he flies on his second, as Barrichello did.

07:14 Barrichello's second lap is much neater, and is third fastest so far. Toro Rosso's Sebastien Buemi is the new name at the top of the timings, a 1:37.702 - that's now getting to within 0.4 seconds of Hamilton's time earlier on.

07:11 Hamilton heads to his car, while the Brawns take to the track as well with Barrichello first to put in a complete lap. He clocks in at 1:38.792, 12th at this very early stage.

07:09 Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen has pottered round his first lap like an over-medicated octagenarian driving to church in a 1981 Lada Riva. He's the current back marker, 3 seconds slower than Bourdais who has just posted a fastest lap.

07:08 Here's something you don't see much of: the Force India of Adrian Sutil is currently the fastest car out there on the track.

07:07 Nelson Piquet Jr loses control and runs off on a high-speed corner, but is able to rejoin without incident. He seems to be struggling here: he did the same thing earlier on today.

07:05 Fernando Alonso of Renault gets out to put in a 1:38.923, but these laps are much slower than the earlier ones. The condition of the circuit and Shanghai's early afternoon heat have made things a little slower, and several teams are taking the opportunity to run on part-worn tyres rather than fresh rubber.

07:03 It's Red Bull's Sebastien Bourdais who completes the first flying lap of the session, clocking a 1:40.157.

07:00 The first cars are out on the track, with the Red Bulls and the Renaults getting in some early track time.

06:55 Hamilton clocked a 1:37.334 earlier this morning to head Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello, with Hamilton's team-mate Heikki Kovalainen fourth fastest.

06:54 The first practice session took place in the middle of the night UK time - and the big shock of the weekend so far is that Lewis Hamilton was quickest in a hastily-revised McLaren.

06:50 Good morning all - our LIVE coverage of the second practice session of the weekend starts in a few minutes time.