Today’s one-hour free practice is a crucial one as the drivers get ready for the first sprint weekend of the season.
Last time out in China, McLaren’s Lando Norris set the tone in practice, and the team finished the weekend with a GP victory courtesy of Oscar Piastri. However, this time around, it looks like Mercedes has the upper hand after their impressive victory in Australia last weekend. The team will be looking to hopefully get up to speed quickly today to keep their momentum going for the 2026 season. Also, to keep in mind, a few teams are coming into this weekend with upgrades on their cars. Ferrari is one of the teams that will be hoping their upgrades give them the extra boost to get ahead in China.
Green Light on Practice
With only one hour to get to grips with the car, the drivers were quick to get out on track. 20 out of 22 drivers made their way out onto the track, creating a lot of traffic for the drivers.
Elsewhere, Franco Colapinto and Lewis Hamilton both have spins on their first laps, heavily flat-spotting their tyres. Many of the drivers seemed to have trouble warming up the tyres as Gabriel Bortoleto became the next driver to lock up his fresh tyres.
First Competitive Laps
Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli is the first to set a competitive time with a 1:35:094. His teammate George Russell soon joined him, bypassing him by 0.029s to set a 1:35.065.
The Alpines seem to be competitive in the early part of the session, with both drivers sitting in the top 10. Unfortunately for Antonelli, a VSC and a yellow flag interrupt his following flying laps.
The VSC was brought out after Arvid Lindblad’s Racing Bull was forced to stop at Turn 14. It is always unfortunate for a driver to end practice early, especially when there is only one hour of practice in the weekend. But for a rookie, who impressed last week in Melbourne, it is tough to miss out on practice on a new track like Shanghai.
Carlos Sainz is another driver who may struggle with a lack of run time. The Williams driver only came out for one out-lap before returning to the pits. There didn’t seem to be any issues with the car, but the team seemed to be struggling to get a data reading from the car.
Back to Practice
The VSC ends at the 40-minute mark, allowing drivers to head back on track. It is still Russell topping the timings, but Charles Leclerc is next best with a time putting him 0.240s behind the Mercedes. Ferrari has brought out their ‘Macarena’ rear wing for this Sprint weekend, earlier than they had originally planned. It is an exciting component, unique to the Italian racing team, and they will be hoping it provides the boost they need for this weekend.
At the half-hour mark, Oliver Bearman impresses in his Haas, sitting in fourth with a 1:34:950. Elsewhere, it is a quiet practice session for the Red Bulls, as they sit at 11th and 12th, roughly 1.8 seconds off the pace of Russell in P1.
Time for Softs
Bar the Aston Martins, sitting at the back of the field, Hamilton is the first to set a flying lap on the softs in this session. His first competitive lap on the tyres takes him up to second, within 0.2s of Russell. However, at this point in the session, the Mercedes has not set a lap on softs.
Eventually, with 12 minutes remaining in the session, it is a rush to finish as the rest of the grid fit soft tyres to simulate qualifying runs. Once the Mercedes fitted red-rimmed tyres to their cars, a wide gap opened between their times and the Ferraris’. Russell continues only to go faster, setting a 1:32:741 and going over eight-tenths faster than Leclerc in third. The McLarens start to climb up in the last few minutes of practice, Piastri gets up to third (+0.736s), and Norris to fifth (+0.959s). The two eventually switch positions as Norris gets ahead of Piastri after setting a time 0.555s off the pace of Russell’s Mercedes. A trip into the gravel at the last turn prevents Leclerc from improving on his time in the final seconds of practice.
With this being their only practice session of the weekend, all the drivers took turns at the start-finish line to complete their practice starts.
Next Up: Sprint Quali
With only a single hour of practice in the books, the drivers need to quickly switch gears as Sprint Qualifying gets underway at 3:30 pm local time later today.
Feature Image Credit: Formula 1/ Formula Motorsport Limited