Practice 1 – Chinese Grand Prix 2019

Round 3 of 21 takes place at the Shanghai International Circuit, China, Valtteri Bottas leads the Driver Standings from team mate Lewis Hamilton, however all eyes will be on Charles Leclerc after his technical woes in Bahrain. Here are some photos from the practice session.

Sebastian Vettel finishes top of the pile in first practice then, with his fastest time of a 1m 33.911s set on the medium compound tyres. That is still some way off last year’s pole time – also set by the German – but it is early days in China, with a dusty track and drivers still feeling their way around this tricky track.  

An interesting first session, with plenty of laps as the teams worked their way through their programmes. Red Bull were aero testing, Haas were trying to eke out the tyre life of the softer Pirelli compounds while there were issues at Alfa Romeo, with engine issues costing Giovinazzi pretty much his entire session.

“I don’t need coaching Bono”

Lewis Hamilton to his race engineer…
McLaren F1 – Lando Norris
Renault F1 – Daniel Ricciardo
Toro Rosso – Alex Albon
Mercedes AMG F1 – Valtteri Bottas
Scuderia Ferrari – Charles Leclerc
ROKiT Williams Racing – George Russell