Mercedes set FP1 benchmark in Shanghai, over 0.5s clear

Mercedes stamped its authority on the solitary practice hour at the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai. George Russell set the outright pace in FP1 with a 1:32.741, and teammate Kimi Antonelli was 0.120s adrift to complete a Mercedes 1-2. The one-hour session — the only practice before sprint qualifying under Shanghai’s compact schedule — left Mercedes more than half a second clear of the nearest challengers on the timing screen.

McLaren and Ferrari were the closest rivals in the limited running: Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri posted the best non-Mercedes times, around 0.56s and 0.73s back respectively, while Charles Leclerc also featured among the early challengers. Teams used the hour for short-run tire work and setup experiments — notably Ferrari introduced a new ‘macarena’ rear wing, which could reduce Mercedes’ straight-line advantage if it proves effective.

Lewis Hamilton briefly ran the ‘macarena’ wing and soft tires during the session but remained well off Russell’s medium-tire benchmark. The session also produced several incidents and reliability concerns teams must address: Hamilton and Norris made contact during an overtaking attempt, with Hamilton spinning and heavily flat-spotting his tires; Franco Colapinto and Oliver Bearman also spun; Arvid Lindblad stopped with smoke; and Carlos Sainz missed much of the hour with a data issue.

Red Bull appeared off the pace in FP1, with Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar running outside the top spots, reinforcing the picture of a weekend in which Mercedes remained the team to beat and others must use sparse track time to try to close the gap.