Lance Stroll was fastest in practice for this weekends Chinese Grand Prix as the sport returned to Shanghai for the first time since 2019. The Canadian set a 36.302 which put him three-tenths faster than Oscar Piastri with Max Verstappen third.
The Canadian took advantage of improving conditions at the end of the session to go fastest in what was a very busy hour. Verstappen had lead most of the session on both mediums and soft tyres but was beaten in the closing moments of the session by Stroll and Piastri.
Earlier in the session, Piastri had a squabble with a five-time race winner in Shanghai, Lewis Hamilton, who complained he was pushed off by the McLaren. But the Mercedes driver was given a warning for crossing the pit entry line, the times continued to tumble and, at the end of it all, Stroll surprised with a late soft, putting him three-tenths clear of Piastri and Verstappen.
China returns to the calendar for the first time since 2019, following an interruption for the coronavirus pandemic and the country’s handling of subsequent Covid restrictions.
Shanghai also hosts the first ‘sprint’ weekend of the new season, with a new format introduced this year. the sprint race the first track action on Saturday followed by grand prix qualifying later the same day. The session was interrupted for a few minutes early on when the grass caught fire on the inside of Turn Seven.
Ferrari, Red Bull’s closest challengers so far this season, ran the soft tyres early in the session and eventually slipped out of the top 10, while Mercedes were the only team not to run either the soft or the medium compound.
Sergio Perez was fourth faster, the Mexican three hundredths behind Verstappen. However, given the format of the weekend the session was always unlikely to the true story of the weekend’s likely pecking order was heightened by the appearance of both Haas cars. Nico Hulkenberg going fifth a hundredth and a half faster than his teammate Kevin Magnussen.
Esteban Ocon put his Alpine seventh, he was a tenth behind the Dane and ahead of the Williams of Alex Albon. Daniel Ricciardo going ninth nearly a tenth faster than Valtteri Bottas to complete the top ten.
Bottas was nearly a tenth faster than teammate Guanyu Zhou, the Chinese driver competing in his home city of Shanghai for the first time and the first to race and be out on track. Zhou is nearly half a second faster than Yuki Tsunoda.
Thanks to the mixed strategies Charles Leclerc was thirteenth going nearly two-tenths faster than Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz. The duo posted their times a lot earlier on in the session. Lando Norris, who would later go onto take sprint pole, was sixteenth ahead of both Mercedes but they only used the hard tyre.
Fernando Alonso was another to take that approach going nineteenth a tenth behind Hamilton. Pierre Gasly completed the field, however his running was hampered by an insulation issue with the ERS.
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