The first and only Free Practice session of the F1 Chinese Grand Prix saw Lando Norris on top of the timesheets, followed by Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri.
What happened in the week between the races?
As Formula 1 returned for its second race in a week, the Chinese Grand Prix set the stage for answers to key storylines from Australia. With rain threatening to shake up the grid, teams faced an unpredictable challenge in Shanghai.
McLaren’s dominance in Melbourne raised questions about whether their advantage would continue, especially with the FIA’s clampdown on flexi-wings. Ferrari aimed to recover from a disastrous weekend, needing to improve both strategy and communication. Meanwhile, rookies sought redemption after a tough debut in Australia.
Freight delays added further complexity, forcing teams into a race against time to prepare their cars. With the Sprint format debuting for 2025, the weekend promised high stakes and drama from the outset.
Green light at the Chinese GP
The only hour of practice for this weekend started. All drivers initially took to the track on the medium tyres. This tyre compound will also be used mandatorily for SQ1 and SQ2 before they switch to softs in SQ3.
Alex Albon and Liam Lawson were two drivers who initially had problems with the newly resurfaced track of the Chinese circuit and had brief excursions into the gravel.
On the other hand, Yuki Tsunoda radioed: “the track is quite gripppy compared to last year, much more.”
After the first 10 minutes, Lando Norris was initially in first place with a 1:33.362. He was followed by George Russell +0.080 and Verstappen +0.587 seconds.
By way of comparison, Max Verstappen’s pole position last year at the Chinese GP was a 1:33.660.
Oscar Piastri topped his team-mate’s fastest time by 0.026 seconds, but shortly afterwards Hamilton set a 1:33.224. Hamilton’s former team-mate Russell followed with an even faster time, a 1:33.017.
The halfway point
Meanwhile, Tsunoda and Bortoleto were out on track, with the Japanese driver experimenting with the slipstream. The rest of the field had returned to the pits for a quick debrief.
With limited time for long runs in the Sprint session, teams primarily used it to gather crucial data on tyre degradation to fine-tune their race strategy.
Bortoleto set a 1:35.606, presumabely he had more fuel on board than the other drivers. Tsunoda set a 1:33.548, which put him into P9 for the time being.
The grid ran the tightly-packed programme for this single training session for the Chinese GP, so hardly anything happened – except that Pierre Gasly complained about his steering wheel: “The switches are all wrong on this wheel.”
Lando Norris seemed to struggle a bit more with his McLaren – he kept having short snaps and small slips where he missed the apex of turn.
However, the wind sometimes thwarted the plans of all the drivers, but Alonso commented on this with “The wind is not just following us.”
The final 15 minutes
There were still no soft tyre runs, but some early conclusions could be drawn from the laps completed.
The gaps between drivers were relatively large, suggesting variations in fuel loads and engine settings. These differences were expected to shrink once Sprint Qualifying began.
Carlos Sainz remained in the top 10, reinforcing Williams’ strong form. Tsunoda and Albon were also in the mix, indicating that the usual midfield contenders from last weekend would likely battle for the top 10 once again.
Meanwhile, Charles Leclerc had a moment at Turn 3, losing the rear and sliding backward towards the gravel. He managed to recover, though not without flat-spotting his tyres and picking up some loose gravel in the process.
Red Flag
Jack Doohan – when it rains, it pours. He reported a problem with his power steering and had to park his Alpine. This resulted in a red flag.
This prevented all drivers who wanted to prepare for the last few minutes on Quali Runs.
Back on track for soft tyre runs
With the red flag having been lifted, all the remaining drivers with red tyres came out onto the track to prepare for their qualifying runs.
With an eye on the expectedly fast teams – Leclerc set a 1:32.103, Norris made a small mistake in sector two and finished his lap 0.058 seconds slower than the Monegasque. Hamilton could not beat his team-mate, was 0.092 seconds slower and Oscar Piastri 0.401 seconds slower.
The final run switched the order – Norris set a phenomenal time of 1:31.504. Leclerc couldn’t top this time, he was +0.454 seconds slower than the McLaren driver.
Final results
- Lando Norris
- Charles Leclerc
- Oscar Piastri
- Lewis Hamilton
- George Russell
- Nico Hülkenberg
- Alex Albon
- Fernando Alonso
- Kimi Antonelli
- Yuki Tsunoda
- Oliver Bearman
- Lance Stroll
- Esteban Ocon
- Pierre Gasly
- Carlos Sainz
- Max Verstappen
- Isack Hadjar
- Liam Lawson
- Gabriel Bortoleto
- Jack Doohan
