2024 CHINESE GRAND PRIX – FREE PRACTICE 1 RESULTS (SHANGHAI)

Lance Stroll pulled off the first Shanghai surprise as the Aston Martin driver set the pace in Friday’s one and only practice hour.

He was comfortably three-tenths up on Oscar Piastri with Max Verstappen third.

Lance Stroll sets the pace in FP1

Given just one practice session in light of the Sprint weekend format, it was a busy and action-packed FP1 with all three compounds in play.

From short runs to race pace, the teams focused on their own diverse programmes, only pausing for a few minutes when a trackside fire at Turn 7 brought out the red flags.

That was extinguished within minutes with the drivers wasting no time as they returned to the track to pick up where they left off.

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Lance Stroll finished quickest of all with a 1:36.302 as the Aston Martin driver put in a late effort on the soft tyres to pip Oscar Piastri by 0.327s.

Max Verstappen was third quickest ahead of his team-mate Sergio Perez, although the latter locked up on his first flying lap, with Nico Hulkenberg in fifth place ahead of his team-mate Kevin Magnussen. Both drivers are running the upgraded Haas with its new engine cover.

Esteban Ocon, running Alpine’s new floor, was seventh ahead of Alex Albon, Daniel Ricciardo, and Valtteri Bottas.

As for Lando Norris, the Mercedes teammates, and Fernando Alonso, none of them completed a late-session soft tyre run with their best times set on the hard tyres.

Chinese GP: Lance Stroll takes the fight to Red Bull as a trackside fire pauses FP1

Times

1 Lance STROLL 1:36.302 (soft)

2 Oscar PIASTRI +0.327 (soft)

3 Max VERSTAPPEN +0.358 (soft)

4 Sergio PEREZ +0.388 (soft)

5 Nico HULKENBERG +0.799 (soft)

6 Kevin MAGNUSSEN +0.816 (soft)

7 Esteban OCON +0.911 (soft)

8 Alexander ALBON +0.927 (soft)

9 Daniel RICCIARDO +0.936 (soft)

10 Valtteri BOTTAS +1.228 (soft)

11 Guanyu ZHOU +1.324 (soft)

12 Yuki TSUNODA +1.704 (soft)

13 Charles LECLERC +1.788 (soft)

14 Carlos SAINZ +1.982 (soft)

15 Logan SARGEANT +1.984 (soft)

16 Lando NORRIS +2.328 (hard)

17 George RUSSELL +2.504 (hard)

18 Lewis HAMILTON +2.537 (hard)

19 Fernando ALONSO +2.634 (hard)

20 Pierre GASLY +2.974 (hard)

2024-04-19T05:14:07Z dg43tfdfdgfd