The Sauber F1 Team enjoyed a positive first practice day leading up to the Chinese Grand Prix on the Shanghai International Circuit. Neither driver had any major technical issues and they were able to complete their programmes. Felipe Nasr tested a new front wing, which revealed encouraging results. Also the long runs were positive, which the two drivers completed in the afternoon.

Marcus Ericsson: "It has been a decent day. I did plenty of laps working through the planned programme. I think I had been struggling a bit to get a good feeling for the car on new tyres. However, on used tyres during the race simulation at the end of the day we were quite competitive, and I felt comfortable, which is promising for the race. Now, we need to fine tune the set-up of the car overnight to make sure of having a good qualifying tomorrow."

Felipe Nasr: "It was a good day. I am satisfied as I think we have fixed the issues we had in Malaysia. The updates we brought seem to work well. We need to make sure we do a good job in qualifying and find a suitable set-up for the race. I think we have a good chance of scoring points again."

Giampaolo Dall'Ara, Head of Track Engineering: "It was another positive Friday. We had no major issues, so we were able to complete our planned programme. We tested a new front wing on Felipe's car, which was encouraging. Marcus concentrated more on set-up work. In the afternoon we did the usual race preparation with long runs on high fuel and the tyre comparisons. We were pretty lucky with the red flag, which didn't really spoil the programme for our drivers. Overall, we can have a positive outlook for the remainder of the weekend."

Check out our Friday gallery, here.