2026 F1 Round 2, Chinese GP FP1: Mercedes secure a one-two as Red Bull and Ferrari fall off the pace

The Chinese Grand Prix, Round 2 of the 2026 Formula 1 World Championship, got under way at Shanghai International Circuit at midday on March 13, China Standard Time (UTC+8). In FP1, the sprint weekend’s only practice session, Mercedes carried over their strong form from a one-two finish at the season opener, with both cars topping the timesheets.

George Russell (Mercedes), the winner of the previous round, set the fastest lap of 1m32.741s, underlining that his pace was no one-race flash in the pan.

Team-mate Kimi Antonelli finished second, 0.120 seconds behind, while the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were third and fourth, but already around 0.5 seconds adrift of the Silver Arrows.

Red Bull made a subdued start: Max Verstappen was eighth, 1.800 seconds off the pace, while team-mate Isack Hadjar was another 0.3 seconds slower and ended the session in 13th.

Aston Martin completed a session without any major failures: Fernando Alonso finished 18th after 18 laps, while Lance Stroll was 20th after 20 laps. Although their lap counts were low, even that was a welcome outcome for a team mired in reliability troubles.

With practice compressed into just 60 minutes on a sprint weekend, the particular sense of urgency was evident everywhere. As the cars headed out, Franco Colapinto (Alpine) tried to squeeze into the fast lane, only to be firmly rebuffed by Antonelli; after subsequently joining the track, Colapinto then suffered a baffling spin at Turn 9.

Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) and Norris made light contact at the final corner shortly after the start, with the stewards taking no further action—a sign of the fierce battle for track position and running time. Hamilton later locked up under braking and spun at Turn 6. The SF-26 was fitted with the rotating rear wing that had stunned the paddock during testing in Bahrain.

Successive interruptions disrupted the teams’ programmes. Ten minutes into the session, debris on the long straight from the contact between Hamilton and Norris triggered the first Virtual Safety Car (VSC) period.

Soon afterwards, the VCARB 03 of Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls), this season’s only rookie, emitted a faint trail of white smoke and stopped at Turn 14, triggering a second VSC period. A chassis failure brought the rookie’s FP1 session to an early end after just 15 minutes of running, costing him a valuable opportunity to get up to speed.

Colapinto briefly stopped in the pit lane with 14 minutes remaining, bringing out yellow flags.

Carlos Sainz (Williams) spent much of the session in the garage because of a car data issue and could manage only 17th after returning to the track in the closing stages.

Oliver Bearman (Haas), who had claimed “best of the rest” honours with seventh at the season opener, impressed again by taking seventh in this session; Nico Hülkenberg (Audi) edged out Pierre Gasly (Alpine) for ninth.

Many cars suffered tyre graining during the session. With the weekend’s only practice session complete and sprint qualifying up next, the teams had another headache to contend with.

Sprint qualifying took place at the same circuit on the afternoon of March 13, China Standard Time (UTC+8).