Raikkonen tops first timesheet

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The Finn trails leader Lewis Hamilton by 17 points with two races remaining but with the McLaren star facing possible punishment for erratic driving behind the safety car at the Japanese Grand Prix, victory at the Shanghai International Circuit could catapult him right back into the title picture.

And Raikkonen's time of one minute 37.024 seconds proved the fastest of the morning run, 0.084secs ahead of McLaren's Fernando Alonso with Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton in close attendance third and fourth respectively as the two teams served notice Sunday's 56-lap encounter will be a close affair.

There was little in the way of action in the first 30 minutes before Hamilton produced the quickest time of the session, only for Raikkonen to edge out the McLaren driver.

However, 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 exited the track at the final turn. Raikkonen was also having difficulty negotiating turn 16, running wide on two occasions, but recorded a lap of 1min 37.595secs, just fractions behind Hamilton's time.

Fellow Ferrari driver Massa then surpassed the 22-year-old by just 0.014secs before Nick Heidfeld's BMW Sauber ground to a halt on the start-finish straight with just over half an hour remaining after smoke began appearing.

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.

Massa responded but was 0.016secs outside Hamilton's mark, before Raikkonen lowered the bar with a time of 1min 37.094, with Alonso close behind. Massa moved up to third but Raikkonen emerged with seven minutes remaining to knock a further seven one hundredths off his time.

Alonso could not match the flying Finn and settled for second with a time of 1min 37.108secs, eight one hundredths of a second off the pace, ahead of Massa and Hamilton, who was just under two tenths back.