George Russell has topped the timesheets during the first and only practice session of the Chinese Grand Prix weekend, the Mercedes driver setting the pace from team mate Kimi Antonelli and McLaren’s Lando Norris.
Ahead of the debut Sprint of the season – with Sprint Qualifying taking place later on Friday – the drivers and teams had just one crucial hour of practice to dial in their cars at the Shanghai International Circuit.
Hence a busy start to the session when the green light appeared at 1130 local time, with a queue of cars streaming out of the pit lane to put some early laps on the board – and there was promptly plenty of action, with Franco Colapinto experiencing a spin in the Alpine at Turn 9.
This was followed by a moment of wheel-to-wheel running between Norris and Lewis Hamilton, the two making light contact after the McLaren tried to overtake – an incident that was noted by the stewards before it was decided that no further investigation was needed – while separately Hamilton went on to spin off the track at Turn 6.
Following a brief Virtual Safety Car to collect some debris, the busy session continued – leading to some annoyance for Isack Hadjar, the Red Bull driver commenting that the traffic was “unbearable”.
Moments later, the yellow flags were thrown when Arvid Lindblad pulled off the track at Turn 14, the Racing Bulls rookie missing out on vital track time during his first F1 Sprint weekend. Another VSC phase followed, with around 40 minutes left on the clock when the track was clear again.
As FP1 neared the halfway point, Russell sat at the top of the timesheets via his effort of 1m 34.169s, just over two-tenths ahead of Charles Leclerc while Antonelli followed in third. One name missing out on mileage was Carlos Sainz, the Williams man spending much of the session in the garage after recording just one lap.
Some drivers started to bolt on the soft compound as the session entered into its second half – including Hamilton, who climbed up to third behind his team mate. Over at Williams, meanwhile, Sainz headed out on track with around 20 minutes to spare, having seemingly been experiencing a data issue.
The session was over for Lindblad, with Racing Bulls confirming that the Briton would not resume running. As the final quarter of the practice hour approached, Russell remained fastest from Hamilton and Leclerc, while McLaren’s Oscar Piastri had slotted into fourth – the majority of the pack still having only used the medium tyres.
Just as others started to swap to the soft rubber – including Russell and Antonelli – Colapinto came to a halt in the pit lane, sparking the yellow flags. The Alpine crew ran from the garage to recover the car, before the Argentine was able to get moving again.
The times started to tumble as more soft-shod laps went on the board, with Russell going even quicker on a 1m 32.807s while Antonelli climbed up to second. Both McLarens were on the move, too, with Piastri and Norris moving up to third and fifth – albeit seven and eight-tenths respectively away from Russell’s time.
When the chequered flag fell, Russell remained on top after lowering his benchmark further to 1m 32.741s, giving him an advantage of 0.120s over team mate Antonelli. Norris slotted into third in the closing moments, putting himself in front of Piastri, Leclerc and Hamilton.
Haas’ Ollie Bearman was an eye-catching seventh, placing ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, the Audi of Nico Hulkenberg and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly. Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson claimed P11, from Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto, the other Red Bull of Hadjar, Haas’ Esteban Ocon and Colapinto.
The Williams pair of Alex Albon and Sainz were 16th and 17th respectively in a tricky session for the Grove-based outfit, while Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll gained further laps for Aston Martin in 18th and 20th, the Cadillac of Valtteri Bottas separating them. Lindblad wound up in 21st following his stoppage, while Cadillac’s Sergio Perez rounded out the classification.
With the weekend’s sole practice session complete, the attentions of the paddock will now shift to Sprint Qualifying, which is set to take place at 1530 local time.
