MERCEDES STARTS THE CHINESE GP WEEKEND IN STRONG FORM
The Formula 1 weekend in China began in a similar way to the opening race in Australia. Mercedes immediately set the pace during the first and only free practice session, with George Russell finishing fastest and Kimi Antonelli close behind in second.
McLaren was the nearest challenger, but Lando Norris ended the session more than half a second slower than Russell. Ferrari finished further down the order with the fifth and sixth fastest times while testing a new front wing design known as the “macarena” wing.
Because the Chinese Grand Prix weekend includes a Sprint format, teams only had one practice session to prepare before Sprint qualifying later in the day. That made the hour-long session extremely important, especially with the new 2026 cars and the challenge of understanding how they behave at the Shanghai circuit.
Ferrari attracted attention by running its updated front wing, first tested during winter testing in Bahrain. The team hopes the new design will improve airflow and overall performance.
The session saw plenty of early action. Lewis Hamilton briefly lost control under braking and spun his Ferrari, although he avoided hitting anything. The incident caused some extra wear on his tyres but did not damage the car.
There was also a short interruption when Racing Bulls rookie Arvid Lindblad stopped on track after smoke appeared from his car. This forced race control to activate a Virtual Safety Car while the car was recovered.
In the early stages the circuit was very dusty and slippery, meaning the track improved quickly as more cars ran laps.
Several drivers reported problems with understeer and graining on the front tyres, where the rubber surface becomes rough and loses grip. Ferrari drivers also mentioned these issues during the session.
Red Bull struggled even more with tyre graining. Max Verstappen spent much of the session focusing on longer runs and did not set a particularly competitive time.
Mercedes leads the session
In the final minutes drivers switched to soft tyres to simulate qualifying laps.
Mercedes confirmed its strong start to the season, with George Russell setting the fastest time of 1:32.741, just ahead of teammate Kimi Antonelli.
Lando Norris finished third for McLaren but more than half a second behind the leader, followed by Oscar Piastri in fourth.
Ferrari ended the session fifth and sixth with Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton. Leclerc was around eight tenths slower than Russell and also made a mistake on his final lap, running wide at the last corner.
Behind them came Oliver Bearman’s Haas, Max Verstappen’s Red Bull, Nico Hülkenberg’s Audi and Pierre Gasly’s Alpine to complete the top ten.
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