Bourdais pleased by Shanghai experience

The Frenchman, who has yet to be confirmed with STR for 2009, made the top ten in both sessions, and ended the day seventh fastest - less than a second slower than Lewis Hamilton's pace-setting McLaren.

"It's my first time here," said Bourdais. "I like the track, even if it seems quite hard on tyres because of all the long corners.

"Aside from that, it's a nice combination, requiring different techniques for different parts - interesting.

"We seem to have found a good pace right from the morning session and we kept the momentum going through the day. Right at the end, I lost the rear of the car on my first lap of my final run at the first corner. Maybe I was just a bit too optimistic."

Italian Grand Prix winner Vettel was less pleased with the balance of his car than his teammate but remains confident for the weekend.

"We are not where we want to be, although the time sheet makes it look worse than it is," he said. "The circuit is in quite good shape and there is some graining on the tyres, but in terms of the car set-up we still have work to do to get the balance of the car right.

"We will have to take a good look at the data to see how to improve tomorrow. There's a bit of work to do, but that's our job!"