Norris sets blistering pace in sole practice session, Leclerc second

Lando Norris needed the whole of the one and only practice session at the Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix before he ultimately set the benchmark with a stunning lap.

With the pace of the McLaren a talking point heading into the second race weekend of the year, Norris was head and shoulders clear of the field with a time of 1m31.504s.

Charles Leclerc was the closest to matching Norris – 0.454 seconds adrift – as Ferrari showed more pace than throughout the Australian Grand Prix, while an error into the final corner of his last run left the sister McLaren of Oscar Piastri in third.

While the changeable weather from race day in Australia gave way to sunshine in Shanghai, a strong tailwind caught out a number of drivers throughout the sole practice session.

With China being the first sprint race of 2025, the six rookies had only this one hour to get to grips with the Shanghai International Circuit – quite literally as the track has been completely resurfaced from last year.

Lewis Hamilton was fourth for Ferrari as the Scuderia appeared the best equipped to challenge McLaren, while George Russell was fifth for Mercedes ahead of another impressive outing for Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg and the Williams of Alex Albon.

Max Verstappen set his fastest time on the medium tyre and ended the session down in 16th as four rookies occupied the last four places.

Jack Doohan’s session cut short by a power steering issue on his Alpine as Gabriel Bortoleto, Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar all struggled.

Lawson had a Red Bull debut to forget in Australia and had an early run through the gravel here, too, while Yuki Tsunoda reported the new asphalt was offering up much more grip than previously.

Carlos Sainz laid down an early marker for Williams as the Spaniard hopes for a better weekend than his debut for the squad in Australia, where he crashed out under the first safety car having qualified behind new team-mate Albon.

But Sainz ultimately fell to 15th as it did not take long for the McLaren pair to clock times that took them ahead of the rest of the field, Piastri just edging clear of Melbourne race winner Norris.

The Ferraris of Hamilton and Leclerc enjoyed a spell at the top of the timesheets, although the latter spun off into the gravel at Turn 2 with 20 minutes of the session remaining.

It was Russell who was the fastest runner on the medium compound before the times fell later on.

Doohan’s session ended early, bringing out a red flag which cut even shorter the running available to teams ahead of sprint qualifying.

The short delay to clear Doohan’s stricken Alpine meant the majority of the field was queuing in the pitlane with soft tyres bolted on for their one and only qualifying-spec run.

FP1 result: