Norris leads the charge during sole practice in China

McLaren seems to have picked up right where it left off after recording two of the top three fastest times during Free Practice in China, with Charles Leclerc splitting Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri ahead of Sprint Qualifying.

With just 60 minutes permitted for drivers to come up to speed with the twists and turns of the completely resurfaced Shanghai International Circuit, a queue formed in the pitlane in anticipation of the green light.

Once on track, positive sentiments regarding the new tarmac began rolling in, with Yuki Tsunoda saying “the track is quite grippy compared to last year”, with the timing sheets instantly reflecting the same.

For Alex Albon, grip was hard to come by at the first 360° corner as the Thai driver quickly became the first to explore the gravel traps in China. 

He wasn’t alone, with Liam Lawson following suit at Turn 2 when his RB21 stepped out of line, before spending the opening moments of the sole practice session at the bottom of the timing sheets.

In a similar case to his Melbourne weekend, that was where Lawson stayed in FP1, with the team presumably tasking the Kiwi with a high-fuel program.

Different to Melbourne was the fact that the set-up variants between Lawson and Verstappen’s cars have been minimised, with the #30 now sporting the same front-wing and nose configuration in China.

He ended the session in P18, three-tenths behind the reigning world champion, however, partly due to the fact that Verstappen aborted his final flying run.

Also unable to best his teammate by the chequered flag was Oscar Piastri who came ever-so-close before a last corner error on his final run put nearly seven-tenths between the teammates.

At the start of his session, Piastri set an opening time of 1:35.194s, a lap which ultimately left him down in P11 after his competitors’ times hit the scoreboard.

Soon, he’d made bounds on track to jump to the very peak of the order, clearing Lando Norris by a slim 0.026-second margin despite claiming the car was “a bit nervous in the high speed”.

As time went on, the Australian soon found comfort in P3, losing out to George Russell and Mercedes who were seemingly running higher engine modes during the first half of Free Practice. 

Following a short-lived late Red Flag delay brought on by his compatriot, Piastri made the most of the remaining eight minutes when he switched over to the soft compound.

His initial lap time on the C4 was a 1:32.504s, however, on his final run, he looked to be making a solid improvement in the first and second sectors.

The improvements saw him outperforming Norris in S1, and coming within touching distance in S2 before his hard work was wasted at Turn 16.

As a result, the Australian finished FP1 in P3, switching his focus to a place on the front row come Sprint Qualifying in a few hours.

Responsible for the late delay in practice, Jack Doohan started the session on a positive note, eventually finding his way into the third fastest time slot before gradually dropping down the order as his race-run program continued.

Rounding out his time on the medium compound tyre, the Australian was getting ready to make the switch to the soft tyre when misfortune struck his A525 and he was forced to jump out of the cockpit.

Lapping the 5.5km circuit, Doohan’s car suddenly lost drive, with the #7 quickly getting on the comms to his team to inform them, saying: “I have an issue, no power steering, the car has stopped.”

The moment caused a brief Red Flag for the session, with any time lost costly due to the concise format of the Sprint weekend.

As for the rest of the field, the McLaren duo were the strongest pairing for the first quarter of the hour, however, ahead and running on their lonesome at the top of the order were the former teammates George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.

Charles Leclerc and Kimi Antonelli soon joined them in the top four, with the #63 ultimately running five-tenths quicker than the Monegasque.

Both Norris and Piastri were forced to abort their attempts due to instability after a suspension change, with the rear of the #4’s MCL39 stepping out at Turn 14.

The Turn 14 hairpin caught many other drivers out, with Hamilton the biggest name to struggle with the low-speed corner along with Pierre Gasly whose car has become one of the victims of the rear-wing clamp down.

The Alpine driver also had issues with his steering wheel, informing his team that “all these switches are wrong” on the wheel as he lapped the 5.4km circuit.

Running as the second fastest driver of the opening half, Leclerc has a big snap through the long-sweeping opening corner sequence, prompting yellow flags after spinning into the gravel before tiptoeing back to the pitlane.

One driver keen to make the switch to the red-marked tyre was Antonelli, who was willing his team to free him of his blistering front-left medium tyre before a Red Flag forced Mercedes into a switch.

All sporting soft tyres, it was a tussle in the pitlane as the final eight minutes of practice ticked down.

The first run reaped a haul of purple sectors, with the Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren drivers all trading the fastest times before Leclerc jumped to P1 with a time of 1:32.103s to his name.

Norris wasn’t far behind despite an error at Turn 8, sitting just 0.058s back on the #16, while Hamilton was even closer to the McLaren driver, just 34 milliseconds slower.

When it came to final attempts, Norris strung together a near-perfect lap despite running slightly wide at Turn 2 to end the hour as the fastest man on track.

Setting a time of 1:31.504s, it was the McLaren leading by a significant four-tenths over Leclerc, with his teammate rounding out the top three.

The drivers and teams now face the challenge of Sprint Qualifying, with the shootout taking place at 18:30 this evening as they compete to set the grid for tomorrow’s 19-lap Sprint. 

Image: Formula 1

Free Practice Results:

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