F1 Results Today: Hamilton struggles, Mercedes flying, cars stopping

Lewis Hamilton is pictured in front of a Chinese flag — Photo: © IMAGO

Chinese Grand Prix

F1 Results Today: Lewis Hamilton off the pace as Mercedes soar at Chinese Grand Prix

All the times from Chinese Grand Prix practice

Chris Deeley

Friday 13 March 2026 05:46 Updated: 11:16

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The one and only practice session for the Chinese Grand Prix saw more reliability issues for teams under the new 2026 F1 regulations.

At the head of the field though, George Russell and Kimi Antonelli dominated the timing sheets, with McLaren clearly the second fastest team behind Ferrari, whose impressive pace in Melbourne appears not to have made the flight to Shanghai.

Charles Leclerc managed to keep the papaya cars relatively honest (if not the Silver Arrows), but Lewis Hamilton could only set a lap time more than half a second back from his team-mate, and nearly a second and a half down on Russell, after a session which started off in sketchy style – getting close to Lando Norris and spinning out, flat-spotting his tyres.

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Max Verstappen, meanwhile, could only go eighth fastest.

Williams could only get Carlos Sainz's car going in the final 25 minutes, citing 'data issues', but matters were even worse for Racing Bulls rookie Arvid Lindblad, who pulled up at the side of the track just 15 minutes in with smoke coming from his cockpit.

While the Aston Martins of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll had predictably limited running due to their team's own issues (see: car shaking itself apart), neither of them stopped on track at any point, and both set lap times. That, unequivocally, makes it the team's best session of the season apart from perhaps FP2 in Australia.

Also, Franco Colapinto stopped dead in the pitlane for about a minute for unclear reasons, before getting his car going again just before his crew of sprinting mechanics reached him. Which was funny.

F1 HEADLINES: Aston Martin short on parts as Alonso preps for Chinese GP nightmare

Chinese Grand Prix FP1 times

Chinese Grand Prix Practice Results
Position	Driver	Team	Time
1	George Russell	Mercedes	1:32.741
2	Kimi Antonelli	Mercedes	+0.120s
3	Lando Norris	McLaren	+0.555s
4	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	+0.731s
5	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	+0.858s
6	Lewis Hamilton	Ferrari	+1.388s
7	Oliver Bearman	Haas	+1.685s
8	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	+1.800s
9	Nico Hulkenberg	Audi	+1.898s
10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	+1.935s
11	Liam Lawson	Racing Bulls	+2.032s
12	Gabriel Bortoleto	Audi	+2.087s
13	Isack Hadjar	Red Bull	+2.115s
14	Esteban Ocon	Haas	+2.136s
15	Franco Colapinto	Alpine	+2.206s
16	Alex Albon	Williams	+2.739s
17	Carlos Sainz	Williams	+2.938s
18	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	+3.115s
19	Valtteri Bottas	Cadillac	+3.316s
20	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	+4.483s
21	Arvid Lindblad	Racing Bulls	+5.155s
22	Sergio Perez	Cadillac	+6.459s