Russell-Antonelli, Mercedes is already scary! Ferrari, Leclerc and Hamilton behind the McLarens

Those who expected different hierarchies on the technical track of Shanghai remain, for now, disappointed: FP1 of the 2026 Chinese GP confirms and indeed enhances the values seen in Melbourne. George Russell continues to dictate the law and finishes on top, followed closely by teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli, giving Toto Wolff, who is laughing again in the garage, a perfect start to the weekend.

Read more 2026 Chinese GP – FP1 Classification: Mercedes on another planet, Ferrari behind the McLarens

The gap inflicted by Mercedes on the rest of the field remains consistent: the first of the pursuers is Lando Norris, third by half a second, followed by the sister McLaren of Oscar Piastri. At Ferrari, the debut of the long-awaited “Macarana” rear wing has not yet produced the hoped-for results on the stopwatch: Charles Leclerc is fifth, 8 tenths behind the leader, while Lewis Hamilton finishes sixth, 1.3 seconds back, hampered by a messy session involving contact with Norris and a spin on his first attempt that disrupted his plans, forcing him to rush the use of the Softs.

A decidedly complicated start for **Red Bull**: Max Verstappen goes no further than the eighth fastest time with a heavy gap (1.8 seconds), while Isack Hadjar is only 13th. It’s no better on the reliability front for the Red Bull Ford engines, with Arvid Lindblad forced to park his Racing Bulls after only fifteen minutes, compromising the start of his weekend.

F1 returns to the track at 8.30 – live text on FormulaPassion.it starting from 8.15 – with sprint qualifying which will establish the starting grid for tomorrow night’s Sprint Race.

F1 Shanghai, race hub: all useful links

To best follow the live coverage of free practice 1 of the F1 Chinese GP, here are all the useful links for the race weekend in Shanghai, the second round of the 2026 World Championship:

• TV times – The weekend schedule
• Weather – What the weather is like in Shanghai
• Preview – The themes of the weekend
• LIVE – The session report
• Results – The session classification
• Last year – How it went in 2025
• Calendar – All F1 2026 rounds
• Driver Standings – After Melbourne
• Constructor Standings – After Melbourne

F1, live report of FP1 of the Chinese GP

05.35 – That’s all for now! Thanks for your attention, you knights of the night of FormulaPassion. And see you at 8.30 (live starting from 8.15 with our Marco Belloro) for the minute-by-minute live account of the first qualifying of the weekend. Maybe you even have time for a nap, right? In any case, see you later, bye!

05.33 – Right at the end, moreover, we saw a spin by Oliver Bearman, who lost control of his Haas at Turn 4, fortunately without consequences and without hitting Stroll’s Aston Martin, which was following him closely.

05.32 – The final classification of free practice 1 of the 2026 Chinese GP.

05.31 – There will now be two laps to practice the grid start, and it’s a novelty: it was decided this way because there is no space at the pit lane exit to practice starts, and we know how sensitive the topic of standing starts is this year.

05.30 – Checkered flag! The only free practice session of the Formula 1 weekend in China ends here.

05.29 – A big risk for Leclerc, who goes wide into the gravel at the exit of the last corner. Charles was, however, good at never losing control, avoiding painful accidents like the barriers (which we have seen many times before at that point on the track).

05.28 – Red Bull, on the other hand, seems to be struggling a bit, with Verstappen in eighth place and Hadjar no further than 14th, in the zone with Bortoleto, Colapinto, Albon, and Sainz.

05.27 – Kimi Antonelli improves, remaining second but managing to close the gap to 120 thousandths from his teammate. A decent lap on Softs also for Piastri, who beats Leclerc and is third, despite being 7 tenths off the lead.

05.24 – New Soft tires also for Max Verstappen, who finishes his first fast lap in “qualifying simulation” moving up to seventh place, 1.8s behind Russell. World champion Lando Norris does a bit better, moving into fourth place, 959 thousandths behind the lead.

05.22 – George Russell improves on his second attempt: 1:32.741 for the Englishman in the Mercedes, who is really making the difference.

05.21 – A bit impatient, Lewis Hamilton seems to return to his “usual” radio statements with the Ferrari pit wall: “Can you tell me where I am in the session? Give me a plan, I don’t know where I am“.

05.20 – Charles Leclerc improves on his first attempt with new Softs, but he is very far from the top: the Monegasque loses 8 tenths to the first of the two Mercedes.

05.19 – Leclerc also launches with new Softs, but in the meantime, the Mercedes have pulled away: 1:32.807 for George Russell, who continues to hold the lead, 156 thousandths ahead of teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli. And Toto Wolff smirks inside the garage…

05.17 – A somewhat peculiar situation because, after stopping in the middle of the pit lane and forcing the mechanics to take a long run from the start of the pit lane, Colapinto eventually restarted and managed to get to his garage on his own. Only there was practically no one waiting for him…

05.15 – Work on the Mediums finished, the two Mercedes now return to the track to simulate qualifying with new Softs. Meanwhile, Franco Colapinto’s Alpine has stalled in the middle of the pit lane.

05.14 – A moment of relative calm now, “only” 11 of the 22 drivers currently out of the pits: these are Hamilton, Piastri, Norris, Hadjar, Verstappen, Colapinto, Bortoleto, Alonso, Bottas, Sainz, and Stroll.

05.11 – Carlos Sainz finally takes to the track, launching on medium tires to start his day’s work, with just under 20 minutes before the checkered flag.

05.10 – The two Mercedes are instead running on a mid-1:37 pace and are therefore working on race pace. The two Reds are in the pits, at least for now, probably to load some fuel to work on long runs.

05.07 – Third fast attempt for Lewis Hamilton, who now finally manages to beat Charles Leclerc’s time: now the Englishman is second, 2 tenths behind the usual leader Russell.

05.05 – A leap forward for Oscar Piastri, one of the great disappointments of the first weekend of the season, which was