Russell fastest in only practice session for Chinese Grand Prix

George Russell was quickest ahead of Mercedes teammate Kimi Antonelli and the McLaren of world champion Lando Norris on Friday in the only practice session of the Chinese Grand Prix weekend in Shanghai.

Russell, winner of the season-opener in Australia, was untouchable again, going fastest on the medium tyres in the first part of the session.

He then strapped on softs with 12 minutes to go and blasted round in 1min 32.741 sec, 0.120 clear of Antonelli.

Norris, who was 0.555sec behind Russell, and Oscar Piastri came next in an improvement for McLaren, who struggled in Australia.

Fifth and sixth were the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton respectively.

The Haas of Oliver Bearman was seventh and Max Verstappen’s Red Bull was eighth, a massive 1.8sec adrift of Russell.

Nico Hulkenberg (Audi) and Pierre Gasly (Alpine) rounded out the top 10 ahead of qualifying later Friday for the first sprint race of the season.

Teams had only one hour to hone their set-ups at the Shanghai International Circuit, a very different track to Melbourne where last week’s opening race was held.

Shanghai has one long straight and several complexes of turns requiring a different approach to battery deployment and energy harvesting in the new cars, which have a 50-50 split between conventional and electrical power.

Hamilton, who won the sprint in China 12 months ago, had an early spin Friday when his brakes locked up towards the end of the main straight.

It was an eventful start to the session for the seven-time world champion, who also had a minor bump with Norris when they touched in the final corner.

Rookie Arvid Lindblad had to retire from his first look at the Shanghai track after just five laps with smoke coming out of his cockpit.