Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel gave another strong signal that he is the man to beat at this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix by setting the fastest time in yesterday’s practice sessions.

Vettel’s best time was almost two tenths of a second faster than McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, who in turn was a tenth faster than teammate Jenson Button in an afternoon session that was shrouded in Shanghai smog.

Vettel’s performance added to a sense of inevitability about a victory for the German this weekend. In both the opening two grands prix, he won the race after setting pole position, and had also claimed pole in the past two races in China.

Should he succeed on Sunday, he will become the first man since Michael Schumacher in 2004 to win the opening three races of a season.

“We found a good rhythm and we’re happy with the car,” Vettel said. “There’s still a lot to do and it will be tight tomorrow and on Sunday, so we’ll look where we can improve. But today we had no big issues.”

The Mercedes pair of Nico Rosberg and Schumacher were fourth and fifth respectively in a performance that will give encouragement to a team that has had a difficult start to the season. Schumacher said yesterday’s practice was “clearly an improvement” over that of previous races.

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa clocked the sixth best time, and Force India’s Adrian Sutil was seventh ahead of the Renault pair of Nick Heidfeld - whose practice time was reduced by spinning into fences in both sessions - and Vitaly Petrov.

Red Bull’s Mark Webber was second fastest in morning practice but down in 10th in the afternoon as he experienced problems with his low-fuel, run on soft tires, but was happy with the high-fuel setting.

Webber said the car was reliable, but the team would wait until it assesses the data yesterday night before deciding whether to use the KERS power-boost system in today’s qualifying and tomorrow’s race. They did not use it in Australia, and it was unreliable in Malaysia.

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso was 14th fastest after missing much of the afternoon with a hydraulic problem, and even though the Spaniard was pleased at an improved tire warm-up rate, he still believed Ferrari was off the pace of its main rivals.

“There are other drivers with more possibilities, to be honest, because Red Bull is still a little bit quicker than us,” Alonso said.

“McLaren is a little bit quicker than us so they should be more favourites, but we will try to do the best we can, and if for any reason we can fight for the victory then be sure we will go for it.”

Yesterday’s times suggested McLaren again appeared to be the main threat to Red Bull. Technical director Paddy Lowe said: “I certainly don’t think Red Bull are cruising - they are feeling the pressure.”

Hamilton, though, again complained of rapid degradation of his tyres - a problem that dropped him from second to an eventual eighth place over the second half of the race at Sepang.

“We’ve been struggling a little bit with the set-up,” Hamilton said. “It doesn’t feel like the car’s performing in all the areas we expected; we need to see whether the issue with the car’s balance is down to the upgrade or just an unsatisfactory set-up.”

Button expected the cooler temperatures of China should reduce tire degradation and boost McLaren’s hopes.

“I don’t think the tires will be as much of an issue to look after as they were in Malaysia,” Button said. “If we sort out the balance tomorrow, we’ll be closer to Red Bull.”

Among the drivers to experience problems yesterday was Hispania’s Vitantonio Liuzzi, who could only complete a single late lap in the afternoon due to a software corruption problem in the car’s computer system.

Virgin’s Timo Glock took little part in the afternoon due to a broken engine valve, while Force India’s Paul Di Resta did not participate at all in the second session due to a fuel pressure issue.

All cars, with the exception of the hampered Glock, set times within seven percent of Vettel’s best lap, indicating all should be able to beat that threshhold in the first qualifying session and thereby be eligible for the race.

The forecast for today and tomorrow was for dry conditions.