Home F1 Chinese GP: Stroll leads FP1 from Piastri as fire causes red flag

Chinese GP: Stroll leads FP1 from Piastri as fire causes red flag

19/04/2024

Lance Stroll led the way in the lone FP1 of returning F1 Chinese GP ahead of Oscar Piastri, with Max Verstappen in third.

It was cloudy conditions to start the returning F1 Chinese GP weekend at Shanghai International Circuit in lone FP1 session being a sprint one. It took a while for everyone to get going but once they did, there was a gaggle of cars together.

They ran varied strategy which saw Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll on top with a 1m36.302s lap ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Paistri and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. The Australian had a run-in with Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton towards the end of the session as well.

It forced Hamilton to take evasive action into the pitlane. He had another moment at the pit entry to go deep, as did Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso. Red Bull’s Sergio Perez was fourth from the Haas pair of Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen.

The Mexican had a gravel moment, as Alpine’s Esteban Ocon looked better in seventh from Williams’ Alexander Albon, with Visa Cash App RB’s Daniel Ricciardo and Stake F1 Team’s Valtteri Bottas rounded out the Top 10 after their soft tyre run.

Local driver Zhou Guanyu was 11th from Visa Cash App RB’s Yuki Tsunoda, as the Ferrari pair of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were 13th and 14th after the team electing to run only the one set of the soft compound in all of the session.

Williams’ Logan Sargeant didn’t feel his lap was good to be 15th, as McLaren’s Lando Norris was 16th from Mercedes’ pair of George Russell and Hamilton. It was a delay for Russell to hit the track as the team were getting the set-up right and also brakes.

He has a new ICE, TC, MGU-H and MGU-K for this weekend, as Aston Martin’s Alonso was 19th from Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, where Norris abandoned his fast looking lap. He along with Russell, Hamilton and Alonso set their best time on the hard compound.

Hamilton had a Turn 6 moment as well. Gasly, meanwhile, complained of issues on radio with the Frenchman not running the updates as his teammate Ocon. There was an early red flag as well after grass on the inside of Turn 7 caught fire and had to be doused.