Chinese Grand Prix FP1 at the Shanghai International Circuit gave us exactly one hour to figure out the pecking order before the season’s first Sprint weekend kicks into gear, and George Russell made the most of it. The Mercedes driver topped the timesheets with a best lap of 1m 32.741s, finishing 0.120 seconds clear of team mate Kimi Antonelli, with McLaren’s Lando Norris rounding out the top three.
Given that this was the only practice session of the entire weekend before Sprint Qualifying, every minute on track mattered. Teams had no safety net here. Get something wrong in setup and there is no second session to correct it.
A chaotic start to the session
Things got lively almost immediately. Franco Colapinto spun the Alpine at Turn 9 not long after the green light appeared at 11:30 local time. Then came a notable moment between Norris and Lewis Hamilton, the McLaren attempting an overtake that resulted in light contact between the two. Stewards looked into it but decided no further action was needed.
Hamilton then had a spin of his own at Turn 6, which probably was not the ideal preparation for a Sprint weekend. A Virtual Safety Car came out briefly to clear some debris, and the interruptions kept coming when Racing Bulls rookie Arvid Lindblad pulled off at Turn 14. That brought out another VSC, cutting into already precious track time for a driver in the middle of his very first F1 Sprint weekend. Lindblad did not return to the session, with Racing Bulls confirming he was done for the day.
Isack Hadjar, his Red Bull team mate across the garage, summed up the mood about the congestion on track pretty bluntly, calling the traffic “unbearable” over team radio.
Russell and Mercedes in control
Through all of that chaos, Russell kept his head and stayed at the top. At the midpoint of the session, he was already sitting on a 1m 34.169s, with Charles Leclerc slotting in just over two-tenths behind and Antonelli in third.
Williams had their own headache to deal with. Carlos Sainz spent the majority of the session in the garage, recording just a single lap early on. The team appeared to be dealing with a data issue, and Sainz only headed back out with around 20 minutes left on the clock. Not ideal when you have one session to prepare for a Sprint weekend.
As more drivers started bolting on soft tyres in the second half, the times began dropping. Russell went quicker, Antonelli followed, and both McLarens started climbing. Hamilton had moved up to third at one point on the softs, sitting behind his team mate, which showed Mercedes genuinely had pace to play with rather than just running in clean air.
Colapinto added another moment of drama near the end, coming to a halt in the pit lane and bringing out yellow flags just as drivers were switching to soft rubber. The Alpine crew scrambled out from the garage to help recover the car, though he did get moving again.
How the final order looked
When the chequered flag fell, the top six read: Russell, Antonelli, Norris, Oscar Piastri, Leclerc and Hamilton. That is two Mercedes, two McLarens, and two Ferraris, which sets up an interesting dynamic heading into Sprint Qualifying. Worth noting that Norris and Piastri were seven and eight-tenths off Russell’s benchmark respectively, which tells you something about where the relative pace sits right now.
Haas rookie Oliver Bearman had a quietly impressive session, finishing seventh ahead of Max Verstappen in the Red Bull. Nico Hulkenberg took ninth for Audi and Pierre Gasly rounded out the top ten for Alpine. Liam Lawson was 11th for Racing Bulls, ahead of Gabriel Bortoleto, Hadjar, Esteban Ocon and Colapinto completing the top 15.
Williams had a tough afternoon overall. Alex Albon and Sainz wound up 16th and 17th, with the limited running for Sainz doing them no favours going into the rest of the weekend. Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll were 18th and 20th for Aston Martin, with Valtteri Bottas in the Cadillac sandwiched between them. Lindblad ended up 21st after his early retirement, and Sergio Perez closed out the field in 22nd.
