CHINESE GP – Lando Norris fastest by half a second from Charles Leclerc in practice
Lando Norris was fastest in practice ahead of this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix, the McLaren driver set a 31.504 to put himself nearly half a second faster than Charles Leclerc. The Englishman set his fastest time right at the end of the session but looked to have more pace as he ran wide in the first snaking sequence of corners.
Norris’ time was more than two seconds quicker than Verstappen’s pole last year in China, which is partly a result of a fully re-laid surface at the Shanghai International Circuit. While that has provided improved grip for the entire field, it’s McLaren who appear to be in a league of their own.
George Russell sparked debate on Thursday when he claimed that McLaren had a bigger advantage over the field than Red Bull ever did during their historically dominant 2023 campaign and that the reigning constructors’ champions could win every race this season. That looked true in practice with Ferrari half a second off.
Leclerc put himself in between both McLaren’s going nearly two tenths ahead of Oscar Piastri, but the Melbournian ran wide on his final attempt which left him six and a half tenths off his teammate. Lewis Hamilton had a much more positive start to the weekend going fourth nearly half a tenth behind the McLaren.
Both Ferrari’s looked strong showing more pace than last weekend and topped the times at some points in the session, ahead of sprint qualifying, Hamilton was over a tenth faster than Russell. However, the seven-time champion didn’t get a second quali sim after a busy end to the session after a red flag when a technical issue caused Jack Doohan’s Alpine to stop on track.
While the fact Hamilton was within a tenth of Leclerc on their first quick runs could be taken as a further positive after his teething issues last weekend. McLaren’s strong showing also dispelled any notion that their performance could be impacted by a tightening of rules on the degree to which cars’ rear wings are allowed to flex on track.
Russell had topped the session on the medium tyres, but the Mercedes driver looked to struggle to improve on the soft. That put him just under two-tenths ahead of Nico Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso, while teammate Kimi Antonelli was a tenth behind with the Racing Bull of Yuki Tsunoda completing the top ten.
Max Verstappen could have gone fastest just before Norris topped the times he was roughly three tenths off before aborting his best lap, which left the four-time champion sixteenth over a second and a half off the pace.
Several drivers had off-track moments as they reacquainted themselves with the Shanghai track, which has been freshly resurfaced for this year’s race, including Norris and Leclerc. But there were no major incidents, other than a brief red flag to recover the stricken Alpine of Jack Doohan, who stopped on track when the car cut out.
Ollie Bearman was eleventh, the Haas driver missing out on the top ten by three hundredths as he went nearly two-hundredths faster than Lance Stroll. The Aston Martin spitting the Haas’s as he went three-quarters of a tenths faster than Esteban Ocon, who was ahead of his former teammate Pierre Gasly by nearly seven hundreds.
Carlos Sainz was also nearly a tenth and a half ahead of his former teammate Verstappen. it looked to be a difficult for the Dutchman to show what he was capable off as the world champion went a tenth faster than Isack Hadjar, the sister Racing Bull spiting the Red Bulls after going nearly a quarter of a second faster than Liam Lawson.
Gabriel Bortoleto was nineteenth ahead of Doohan after he failed to rejoin the session after stopping on track.