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Button tops first practice in China

McLaren’s Jenson Button topped opening practice for the Chinese Grand Prix Friday after a session marred by a dramatic crash by Swiss youngster Sebastien Buemi.

The 21-year-old Buemi, driving for Scuderia Toro Rosso, crashed heavily at the end of the back straight of the Shanghai International Circuit with 15 minutes remaining in the 90-minute session.

The Swiss, who had sat out much of the earlier part of the session with a brake system leak, crashed after both front wheels came off the car under braking at the end of the 310-kilometre (194-mile) per hour straight, destroying the suspension and sending him into the barriers.

Buemi was fortunate to be able to walk away from the heavy shunt, returning to the pits on foot. He was in 17^th place at the time of his accident.

Button, the reigning world champion, set his session-best time of 1min 36.677secs just after the half-way mark, just 0.071secs quicker than Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg in second place.

Button’s teammate Lewis Hamilton was third, less than a tenth of a second adrift. Michael Schumacher (Mercedes) was fourth, while Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing), race-winner in Malaysia two weeks ago, rounded out the top five.

Ferrari’s engine reliability woes continued, with two-time world champion Fernando Alonso finishing at the bottom of the timesheets after blowing an engine after 50 minutes.

The Spaniard was on his first flying lap of the session when the right-hand side of his car erupted in flames entering the hairpin at turn six, and he was forced to sit out for the remainder of the session.

Alonso, who retired from a points-paying position in the last race in Malaysia with an engine failure, was using the engine that his team had replaced because of reliability concerns before the season-opening race in Bahrain.

He now has only six engines remaining for the season from his 19-race allocation of eight.

Hamilton took top spot in the session after 40 minutes, but was soon deposed atop the timesheets by Button.

The McLaren duo enjoyed a significant speed advantage along Shanghai’s lengthy back straight thanks to its “F-duct” device, which permits air flow through the cockpit to be controlled by the drivers to “stall” the work of the rear wing, reducing downforce to add extra speed in a straight line.

Only McLaren, Sauber and Ferrari are using the device in China this weekend.