Chinese Grand Prix – Free Practice: Lance Stroll fastest
Lance Stroll in his Aston Martin set the fastest time in the first and only free practice session of the F1 Chinese Grand Prix, in its return to the calendar. The drivers had just one hour to work on their cars before sprint qualifying.
The Chinese Grand Prix has not taken place since 2019, with the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic. This circuit is therefore unknown to some of the drivers on the grid and has never been driven with the new F1 aerodynamic configurations. However, the drivers only have an hour to prepare for this “new” track in the context of a sprint weekend with a qualifying session this afternoon.
The session was even interrupted by a red flag in the middle of the session due to a fire starting on the lawn near a rumble strip. The red flag caused the drivers to lose about ten minutes of preparation.
In these conditions, the drivers had to both recognize the track, prepare for the long relays, and prepare for the fast relays for the numerous qualifications this weekend during this sprint format.
The lap times fell slightly at the end of the session on qualifying simulations and it was Lance Stroll who set the best time right at the end of the session. He is ahead of Oscar Piastri in a McLaren. The two Red Bull drivers follow, with Max Verstappen ahead of Sergio Perez.
The Haas, Esteban Ocon’s Alpine, Alexander Albon’s Williams, and Daniel Ricciardo’s Racing Bulls close the top 10.
The Alpine drivers experienced a very mixed session. While Ocon was able to enter the top 10 with a new floor fitted to his Alpine, on the side of his French teammate’s garage, there were frowns: “This is not acceptable, we haven’t learned anything,” complained Pierre Gasly. The driver had to stay in his box for a good part of the session due to an electrical insulation problem on the engine of his Alpine.
The usual top dogs, except for Red Bull, are far behind. Ferraris are in 13th and 14th place, Mercedes are in 17th and 18th, and Fernando Alonso is only 19th with only one set of hard tires mounted on his Aston Martin.
See you at 9:30 for the sprint qualifications.
The results of the free practice sessions of the 2024 Chinese Grand Prix of F1
| Driver | Team | Times | Gap | Laps | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin Aramco | 1:36.302 | 21 | |
| 2 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 1:36.629 | +0,327 | 24 |
| 3 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing | 1:36.660 | +0,358 | 25 |
| 4 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull Racing | 1:36.690 | +0,388 | 24 |
| 5 | Nico Hülkenberg | Haas | 1:37.101 | +0,799 | 23 |
| 6 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 1:37.118 | +0,816 | 23 |
| 7 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | 1:37.213 | +0,911 | 23 |
| 8 | Alexander Albon | Williams | 1:37.229 | +0,927 | 19 |
| 9 | Daniel Ricciardo | Racing Bulls | 1:37.238 | +0,936 | 25 |
| 10 | Valtteri Bottas | Sauber | 1:37.530 | +1,228 | 24 |
| 11 | Zhou Guanyu | Sauber | 1:37.626 | +1,324 | 24 |
| 12 | Yuki Tsunoda | Racing Bulls | 1:38.006 | +1,704 | 27 |
| 13 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1:38.090 | +1,788 | 20 |
| 14 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | 1:38.284 | +1,982 | 19 |
| 15 | Logan Sargeant | Williams | 1:38.286 | +1,984 | 23 |
| 16 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 1:38.630 | +2,328 | 21 |
| 17 | George Russell | Mercedes | 1:38.806 | +2,504 | 21 |
| 18 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:38.839 | +2,537 | 24 |
| 19 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin Aramco | 1:38.936 | +2,634 | 22 |
| 20 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | 1:39.276 | +2,974 | 21 |
