Lando Norris topped the only practice session for the 2025 Chinese Grand Prix ahead Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, while Max Verstappen was down in 15th.
Norris posted a 1:31.504 to go fastest of all and 0.454s ahead of Leclerc who was second while Oscar Piastri was third fastest over six tenths adrift of his teammate.
The session was Red flagged towards the end when Jack Doohan's Alpine broke down out on track, but other than a few spins and wide moments, the session was drama free.
Verstappen, the four-time Formula 1 champion failed to set a time on the Soft tyres, aborting his flying laps on two occasions was 15th fastest, 1.780s off the pace.
Lewis Hamilton was fourth fastest in the second Ferrari, almost seven tenths off the pace and was 0.182s ahead of his former teammate George Russell who was fifth fastest.
Russell set the pace early on but did not improve much once the Soft tyres were bolted to his Mercedes.
In sixth was Nico Hulkenberg in the Sauber while his teammate Gabriel Bortoleto was down in 19th in the sister car.
Alex Abon was seventh for Williams ahead of Fernando Alonso who was eighth in Aston Martin. Their teammates, Carlos Sainz and Lance Stroll were 15th and 12th respectively.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli was ninth fastest ahead of Yuki Tsunoda who was tenth as his teammate Isack Hadjar was 17th fastest.
Buildup towards FP1
After the 2025 Australian Grand Prix, F1 was back at racing at the 2025 Chinese Grand Prix which will also be the first Sprint weekend this season.
That should make for good racing as the teams, who are yet to get to grips with their new cars after just one race, will have only one practice session to set them up for the Shanghai International Circuit before they head into Sprint qualifying.
Last weekend in Melbourne, McLaren unsurprisingly emerged as favorites while it was Verstappen who took the fight to them as Ferrari failed to deliver when it mattered as Mercedes capitalized on a chaotic race to take a podium with Russell.
And while McLaren insist on downplaying their form, expect them to be the team to beat this weekend as well as Verstappen will have his hands full trying to wrestle his RB21 into contention while we see how Ferrari fare this time, not to mention Mercedes.
Apart from Antonelli, all the rookies had a terrible outing down under one week ago, so it would be interesting to see if they can keep their respective cars out of the barriers this time as they do not have to worry about the weather with dry conditions forecasted for the whole weekend.
The track has been resurfaced which will be an extra challenge for the teams and drivers to get their heads around the tyres.
Speaking of the tyres, Pirelli brought the C2 (Hard), C3 (Medium), and C4 (Soft) tyres to the party.
Other than that, this weekend, the FIA will implement their latest directive regarding flexing rear wings, which is believed targets McLaren, who, according to Norris, have nothing to worry about.
FP1 Session Highlights
The session started in sunny and warm conditions, and being the only practice session this weekend, the teams and drivers did not waste any time to get going as cars lined up in the pitlane waiting for the green light.
Bearman was the first driver out on track with all drivers having the medium tyres on their cars at the start of the session.
Albon soon went deep into Turn 1 and had a trip into the gravel. Lawson, on the other hand, tested the gravel trap on the outside of Turn 2.
Tsunoda was happy with the level of grip on the resurfaced track claiming is was "quite grippy" compared to last year. Albon reported something loose around his pedals.
Indeed, the opening times in FP1 were already almost two seconds faster than the time registered in practice last year.
Norris soon posted a 1:33.336s which was faster than the pole time set in 2025. Piastri soon went even faster, only for Hamilton to go faster than both.
Piastri's engineer asked him about his car and the Aussie responded that it was a "bit nervous in the high speed".
The times continued to drop with every extra lap on the track as the new grippy surface seemed to be rubbering in quite fast.
Hamilton ran a bit wide on the kerbs exiting Turn 16 with sparks flying from the floor of his car. He also had a slide earlier.
Back to the rear wing talk, a replay showed the rear wing on Tsunoda's Racing Bull was flapping when the DRS was on.
Verstappen had a snap in Turn 1 while on a timed lap and had to abort it.
Gasly reported that "all the switches are wrong" on his wheel. The Frenchman was referring to a spare steering wheel. A reboot should sort out the issue.
Over halfway into the session and none of the driver have used the Soft tyres yet. Just banging in the laps on the Softs.
Norris soon had a wide moment at Turn 1, but kept going, no issues. But Leclerc soon after had a more dramatic moment at Turn 1, losing the rear and ending up in the gravel. He was able to rejoin.
Antonelli reported that he is suffering from blistering with his front left tyre, only for his engineer to report that it was a universal issue.
Hamilton, on his way into the pits, missed his braking and came in too hot and ran wide. He survived the lunge though. Antonelli also came into the pits too hot and locked up.
With 13 minutes remaining, Doohan parked his Alpine on the side of the road reporting he had no power steering and the car shut down. The Red flag was out as a result.
The session was restarted with nine minutes remaining and drivers queued up at the end of the pitlane to make use of the precious time left and finally the Soft tyre were out.
After a brief run on Softs, that saw Verstappen abort two attempts, the session ended with practice starts.
Chinese Grand Prix FP1 Classification
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