FP1: Norris heads Leclerc in opening practice as McLaren continue to dominate in Shanghai

Following his dominant showing at last weekend's season-opening Australian Grand Prix, McLaren's Lando Norris continued to set the pace in the opening practice at the Chinese Grand Prix, heading the Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton and his team-mate Oscar Piastri in the sole one-hour practice of the Shanghai weekend. F1Technical's senior writer Balazs Szabo reports on FP1.

Just five days after the chequered flag fell at Melbourne, drivers were back in action this morning, taking part in the sole practice session of the Chinese Grand Prix.

Most of the drivers concentrated on Pirelli's medium compound in the opening stages of the session before completing a qualifying simulation run on the red-walled softs.

Ahead of the low-fuel runs, the session was interrupted with a red flag. The interruption was caused by Jack Doohan who pulled off track after reporting an issue with the power steering in his Alpine.

In the end, McLaren's Lando Norris surged into P1 with a lap of 1m 31.504, four-tenths clear of Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, who suffered a spin in Turn 2 halfway through the session.

Having suffered a disappointing home race in Melbourne despite the promising pace, Oscar Piastri slotted into third after going wide at the final corner on his effort.

Although Lewis Hamilton suffered an off-track moment into the last hairpin, the seven-time world champion looked slightly more comfortable in his SF-24. The Briton took fourth place ahead of his former team-mate George Russell.

Having capitalized on a late safety car intervention in Australia, Nico Hulkenberg was an eye-catching sixth for Kick Sauber, from Alex Albon in seventh, with Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli and the Racing Bulls of Yuki Tsunoda completing the top 10.

Following his horrendous showing in Australia, Haas driver Oliver Bearman had a quiet session, taking 11th while his team-mate Esteban Ocon ended the session in P13.

Carlos Sainz did not have any particular issue, but he only ended up 15th fastest, almost half a second behind his team-mate Albon.
Reigning champion Max Verstappen was down in 16th for Red Bull, but his position does not reflect his true pace. The Dutchman displayed promising performance on the mediums, and he was on course to set a competitive lap time on his final push lap on Pirelli’s softs, but the four-time F1 champion aborted his lap, meaning that he did not get a representative effort on the board.

His team-mate Liam Lawson had another troublesome session. The New Zealander ended up in P23, but some reliability issues disrupted his practice midway through the session.