Mercedes’ nearest rival, Oscar Piastri, was over seven-tenths down.
The sole practice session of the Shanghai Sprint weekend began with Esteban Ocon leading the queue out of the pit lane. Franco Colapinto’s session didn’t get off to the best of starts as he went spinning through the Turn 9/10 section when his rear axle locked.
Lewis Hamilton, running Ferrari’s ‘macarena’ rear wing, also had a spin through Turn 5 as he too locked up and went spinning off the track. Back on track, Lando Norris caught up to Hamilton and made a move up the inside of the final corner only for Hamilton to come back at him. A bit of contact and a small bit of bodywork flying off the Ferrari SF-26.
George Russell led the way after the first 10 minutes of running with a 1:35.065, 0.029s ahead of Kimi Antonelli. Charles Leclerc was third, half a second down.
Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz were yet to set a time. Sainz completed one lap before heading back into the pits with Williams mechanics donning rubber gloves before touching his FW48. Williams was investigating a data problem.
Hamilton was noted for causing a collision as the Virtual Safety Car came out for the marshals to pick up the piece of bodywork that came off the Ferrari.
Arvid Lindblad’s session came to an early end, the Racing Bulls driver parking his car off the track at the hairpin. He was on his sixth lap when he stopped, not great on a Sprint weekend. The VSC was deployed again.
Back to green flag conditions, Leclerc split the Mercedes drivers but was still half a second down on Russell’s 1:34.169, the Mercedes driver having improved his time just before Lindblad’s VSC. Lando Norris, up to fifth place, had a snap of oversteer through Turn 3.
Hamilton was the first of the front runners to leave the pits on a set of soft Pirellis. He improved to fifth place and then to third on his second flying lap. But he was still over four-tenths down on Russell’s medium tyre lap. He was up to second on his next flying lap.
Sainz joined the action with 20 minutes remaining in the session and worked his way up to 17th place. Meanwhile Colapinto found himself stationary in the fast lane on his way back to his Alpine garage. As his mechanics ran down to assist him, he got going and made his own way back to the pit box.
Russell swapped to the soft tyres and upped his pace to a 1:32.807, Antonelli back up to second where he was a tenth down on his teammate. Leclerc was third, six-tenths slower than the Italian. Piastri then climbed to third, Norris fifth, while Verstappen’s lap was only good enough for eighth place, slower than Hamilton and Oliver Bearman.
The session ended with Russell P1 with his 1:32.741, the championship leader a tenth up on his Mercedes teammate while Piastri, the nearest non-Mercedes driver, was 0.736s slower.
Chinese GP FP1 Times:
1 George Russell Mercedes 1:32.741
2 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:32.861
3 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:33.477
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:33.599
5 Lando Norris McLaren 1:33.700
6 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:34.129
7 Oliver Bearman Haas 1:34.512
8 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:34.541
9 Nico Hulkenberg Audi 1:34.639
10 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:34.676
11 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls 1:34.773
12 Esteban Ocon Haas 1:34.877
13 Isack Hadjar Red Bull 1:34.856
14 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi 1:35.148
15 Franco Colapinto Alpine 1:34.947
16 Alex Albon Williams 1:35.480
17 Carlos Sainz Williams 1:35.679
18 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:35.856
19 Valtteri Bottas Cadillac 1:36.057
20 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:37.224
21 Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls 1:37.896
22 Sergio Perez Cadillac 1:39.200
