Stroll surprise pacesetter in sole China practice after bizarre grass fire

Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll set the unexpected pace in the only practice before Friday morning’s Sprint Qualifying at the Chinese GP in an intriguing session which had earlier been interrupted by a bizarre grass fire.

With F1 cars running around the vast and fast Shanghai International Circuit after a five-year absence at the start of the season’s first Sprint weekend, teams appeared to take differing approaches to the hour of running with alternative strategies for tyres and, seemingly, fuel loads evident through the field to create an unusual-looking final timesheet.

World champion Max Verstappen had led much of the session for Red Bull, on medium and then soft tyres, but was overhauled in the closing minutes as track conditions evolved – first by McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and then Aston Martin’s Stroll.

Stroll’s fastest time of 1:36.302 was 0.327s quicker than Piastri’s, with Red Bull’s Verstappen a further 0.021s adrift.

Sergio Perez was fourth in the second Red Bull ahead of the Haas cars of Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen, with Alpine’s Esteban Ocon in sixth.

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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.

Teams will now immediately prepare for Sprint Qualifying at 8.30am, the 45-minute session that sets the grid for the 19-lap Sprint race at 4am on Saturday.

Grass fire, Hamilton’s pit mix-up, and practice guessing games

F1 is back in China for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic and the appearance of the Shanghai track surface had surprised drivers and teams during their circuit walks on Thursday, with what some had initially thought were darker painted sections but was actually a bitumen treatment, which is designed to prevent disintegration and eliminate dust.

However, with the track perhaps not quite proving as grip-less as feared when practice commenced on Friday, it was soon the grass on the inside of the track that was causing more concern.

It was a quarter of an hour in to running when a small fire suddenly broke out on a patch of grass on the inside of Turn Seven. Race Control threw the red flag, with cars returning to the pit lane, to allow marshals the chance to put the fire out with extinguishers.

The matter was swiftly resolved with a scorched section of grass left to show for the bizarre incident when cars returned to the track minutes later.

While highly unusual, it appears a spark generated by a titanium skid-block on the underside of a car while hitting the ground through the high-speed section may have been the culprit amid dry but windy conditions in Shanghai after rain earlier in the week.

Mercedes, meanwhile, were the only team to exclusively run the hardest, and slowest, tyre compound through the session, meaning George Russell and Lewis Hamilton finished down in unrepresentative 17th and 18th positions as a result.

Hamilton was given a black-and-white warning flag during the session after not adhering to the race director’s instructions by crossing the white line on the entry to the pit lane.

However, the Briton’s decision to take to the pit lane appeared to be sudden and inadvertent after he said he was pushed wide at the final corner by the McLaren of Piastri.

Chinese GP Practice One Timesheet

Driver
Team
Time

1) Lance Stroll
Aston Martin
1:36.302

2) Oscar Piastri
McLaren
+0.327

3) Max Verstappen
Red Bull
+0.358

4) Sergio Perez
Red Bull
+0.388

5) Nico Hulkenberg
Haas
+0.799

6) Kevin Magnussen
Haas
+0.816

7) Esteban Ocon
Alpine
+0.911

8) Alex Albon
Williams
+0.927

9) Daniel Ricciardo
RB
+0.936

10) Valtteri Bottas
Sauber
+1.228

11) Zhou Guanyu
Sauber
+1.324

12) Yuki Tsunoda
RB
+1.704

13) Charles Leclerc
Ferrari
+1.788

14) Carlos Sainz
Ferrari
+1.982

15) Logan Sargeant
Williams
+1.984

16) Lando Norris
McLaren
+2.328

17) George Russell
Mercedes
+2.504

18) Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes
+2.537

19) Fernando Alonso
Aston Martin
+2.634

20) Pierre Gasly
Alpine
+3.568

Sky Sports F1’s live Chinese GP schedule

Friday April 19
8am: Chinese GP Sprint Qualifying (session starts at 8.30am)*

Saturday April 20
3.30am: Chinese GP Sprint (race starts at 4am)*

7am: Chinese GP Qualifying build-up*
8am: Chinese GP Qualifying*

10am: Ted’s Qualifying Notebook*

Sunday April 21

7am: Grand Prix Sunday: Chinese GP build-up*
8am: The CHINESE GRAND PRIX*

10am: Chequered Flag: Chinese GP reaction*

11am: Ted’s Notebook*

*also live on Sky Sports Main Event

You can watch every session of the Chinese Grand Prix live on Sky Sports F1 and steam every F1 race and more with a NOW Sports Month Membership – No contract, cancel anytime

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