Lewis Hamilton set a new lap record at the Shanghai International Circuit as he claimed Sprint Race pole position for Ferrari.

Hamilton moved to the front with a time of 1:30.849s during an enthralling SQ3 session in China, beating reigning champion Max Verstappen by just 0.018s.

READ MORE – Lewis Hamilton ready to ‘rebuild’ Ferrari amid F1 title vow

McLaren, favourites heading into the session, wound up with Oscar Piastri third and Lando Norris sixth, as neither improved on their first laps.

Norris had errors on both of his push laps in SQ3 as he bid for back-to-back Sprint poles at the venue faltered.

Charles Leclerc was fourth for Ferrari, with George Russell in fifth spot, and his Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli seventh.

Yuki Tsunoda was eighth for Racing Bulls, ahead of Williams’ Alex Albon and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll.

Fernando Alonso missed out on a spot in SQ3 by two-thousandths of a second and will start from 11^th, while Oliver Bearman gave Haas reason for encouragement after a difficult start to the campaign by taking 12^th place.

Carlos Sainz was unable to match the pace of team-mate Alex Albon and finished 13^th, while Gabriel Bortoleto was again the faster Sauber driver across a single lap and took 14^th spot.

Isack Hadjar finished 15^th after an error through Turn 1 on his SQ2 lap proved terminal to his prospects of advancing.

Alpine suffered a double elimination from SQ1 as neither Jack Doohan nor Pierre Gasly were able to escape the 12-minute session.

Esteban Ocon was 18^th for Haas, ahead of Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg, while Liam Lawson had another dismal outing for Red Bull Racing.

Lawson struggled to get the Medium tyres working and an error through Turn 9 compounded his woes as he finished last of the 20 drivers.

READ MORE – F1 2025 Chinese Grand Prix – Sprint Qualifying Results

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McLaren driver Lando Norris opened the new Formula 1 season atop the timesheets in first practice in Australia, as Oliver Bearman crashed heavily.

Norris moved to the front during the closing stages with a time of 1:17.252s, displacing the impressive Williams of Carlos Sainz, who wound up 0.149s behind in second place.

Charles Leclerc was in third place for Ferrari, ahead of local favourite Oscar Piastri, with reigning World Champion Max Verstappen in fifth place for Red Bull Racing.

The biggest drama of the session befell British racer Bearman.

Bearman, entering his first full season with Haas, ran wide across the Turn 10 rumble strips and attempted to save the car, but was spat into the barriers on the outside of the track.

The right-hand-side of the car sustained sizeable damage in the impact, with the right-rear tyre ripped from the rim, though Bearman was able to walk away uninjured from the wreckage.

The session was stopped for 12 minutes while Bearman’s damaged car was removed.

It compounded a challenging session for Haas as Bearman’s team-mate Esteban Ocon finished in 19^th spot.

Alex Albon finished in sixth for Williams, completing an encouraging session for the team, while George Russell spun on entry to Turn 4 but managed to stop his Mercedes before making contact with the wall.

Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll were eighth and tenth respectively, sandwiching the Racing Bulls of Isack Hadjar.

Hadjar’s team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was 11^th, ahead of Lewis Hamilton in his first session for Ferrari, Alpine’s home debutant Jack Doohan, and Hamilton’s Mercedes replacement Kimi Antonelli.

Another debutant, Gabriel Bortoleto, was the faster of the two Sauber drivers in 15^th place, three spots ahead of experienced team-mate Nico Hulkenberg.

Liam Lawson was a low-key 16^th on his Red Bull debut, with Alpine’s Pierre Gasly in 17^th spot.

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Charles Leclerc set the fastest time for Ferrari during the opening practice session for the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Leclerc used Soft tyres to post a time of 1:24.321s in the one-hour daytime session, which takes place in largely unrepresentative conditions.

Leclerc was 0.221s faster than McLaren’s Lando Norris as the two teams prepare to duel it out for the Constructors’ Championship at the Yas Marina Circuit.

McLaren heads Ferrari by 21 points as the teams strive to end a 26-year and 16-year Constructors’ title drought respectively.

Mercedes pair Lewis Hamilton and George Russell were third and fourth respectively, as the seven-time world champion prepares to bid farewell to the Silver Arrows.

Pierre Gasly edged Nico Hulkenberg for fifth place by just four-hundredths of a second ahead of Alpine and Haas contesting sixth position in the standings.

Franco Colapinto was seventh for Williams but both he and team-mate Alex Albon face five-place grid penalties for Sunday’s race due to taking on fresh gearbox components, exceeding their allocation for the campaign.

Kevin Magnussen placed eighth for Haas while Aston Martin tester Felipe Drugovich and under-pressure Red Bull driver Sergio Perez rounded out the top 10.

Six rookie drivers participated in the first practice session – completing the teams’ quota for 2024 – including three debutants, and a special alliance at Ferrari.

Arthur Leclerc, younger brother of Charles, replaced Carlos Sainz at Ferrari for the session, becoming the first siblings to line up alongside each other at the outfit.

Elsewhere Luke Browning made his debut for Williams while sportscar ace Ryo Hirakawa tested for McLaren, ahead of his outing for Haas in the test next week.

There were also practice runs for Isack Hadjar at Red Bull, long-term Aston Martin reserve Felipe Drugovich, and Red Bull protégé Ayumu Iwasa at RB.

Hadjar was the only one of the sextuplet to encounter issues after spinning the RB20 through Turn 9 during the opening stages of the session.

READ MORE – Ferrari F1 title hopes dashed by Charles Leclerc 10-place grid drop in Abu Dhabi

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Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton opened the Las Vegas Grand Prix weekend atop the timesheets by setting the fastest time in first practice on Thursday evening.

After 2023’s issues, with practice delayed and curtailed, there were no such problems for Las Vegas’ sophomore running, as drivers racked up mileage around the streets of Nevada’s famous city.

In expectedly chilly conditions Hamilton posted a time of 1:35.001s on his final flying lap of the one-hour session to dislodge team-mate George Russell from the top of the timesheets.

Hamilton’s lap left him 0.396s clear of Russell, with third-placed Lando Norris the only other driver to finish within a second of the seven-times World Champion.

Norris must out-score Max Verstappen by three or more points on Saturday evening in order to keep his dwindling title ambitions alive.

Verstappen, who complained of steering wheel connection issues through the session, wound up in fifth position, within a tenth of Norris.

Ferrari took fourth and sixth respectively, with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz sandwiching Verstappen, while Fernando Alonso was seventh for Aston Martin.

Oscar Piastri was shuffled down to eighth place during the closing stages, leaving Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez to round out the top 10.

Several drivers ran wide at the end of the Strip but the field of 20 stayed out of major trouble throughout the course of the session.

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McLaren’s Lando Norris set the fastest time during the sole practice session for Formula 1’s São Paulo Grand Prix.

Norris posted a time of 1:10.610s in the closing stages of the one-hour session, held in hot and sunny conditions at a resurfaced Interlagos, to finish 0.181s clear of Mercedes’ George Russell.

Russell had gone early for his Soft tyre run and held the advantage for much of the closing stages before Norris’ final flying effort dislodged his time.

Third spot went to Haas reserve driver Ollie Bearman.

Bearman received the call up on Friday morning in the wake of regular racer Kevin Magnussen being taken unwell.

Magnussen’s prognosis remains unknown but Bearman will remain in the car throughout Friday – meaning he will also contest Saturday morning’s Sprint Race.

Per regulations Magnussen is permitted to return to action for qualifying if he is able to do so.

Oscar Piastri improved after an error on his first Soft tyre run to finish fourth, ahead of Williams’ Alex Albon, with Ferrari duo Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz sixth and seventh.

Nico Hulkenberg was eighth for Haas, as Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly rounded out the top 10.

Red Bull Racing was not a factor towards the top of the timesheets.

Max Verstappen, who will take a five-place grid penalty for Sunday’s race due to new engine, finished in 15^th place, having abandoned his Soft tyre run.

Sergio Perez completed his Soft effort but was left down in 19^th place, faster only than Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu.

Lewis Hamilton was only 16^th on the Medium tyres and complained of being in pain during the final minutes of proceedings.

READ MORE – F1 2024 Sao Paulo Grand Prix – FP1 Results

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Mercedes driver George Russell set the pace during the opening practice session for Formula 1’s Mexico City Grand Prix, which featured five young drivers, and an unusual accident.

Russell used Soft tyres to set a time of 1:17.998s around the high altitude and dusty Autodromo Hermanos Rodríguez, leaving him 0.317s clear of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.

Half of the 10 teams elected to use Mexico City’s FP1 session to run a young driver and one of them, Ferrari’s Ollie Bearman, was involved in an atypical clash with Williams’ Alex Albon.

Albon slid through Turn 10 but as he tried to correct the car encountered the dirty air from Bearman, who was running in front on track but not on a hot lap.

As Albon’s tried to save the slide he overcorrected, and clipped the side of Bearman’s Ferrari, who had pulled off-line to let him through, and spun into the wall on the outside of the track, with his FW46 sustaining heavy damage.

Bearman’s car also copped damage and he came to a stop by the side of the track.

The session was halted for 15 minutes while the cars were removed and the barriers were repaired.

RB’s Yuki Tsunoda was third overall, ahead of World Champion Max Verstappen, with Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg fifth.

Oscar Piastri was sixth in the McLaren, with the Australian not running the updated floor that will feature on Lando Norris’ car for the remainder of the weekend.

Norris sat out FP1, with home hero Pato O’Ward instead driving the MCL38; he started on the old-spec floor before switching to the new version midway through running.

O’Ward finished the session down in 13th position.

Elsewhere in the field Mercedes’ 2025 signing Andrea Kimi Antonelli had his second FP1 of the year and caused a brief red flag early in the session when he struck debris on the approach to Turn 1.

Antonelli was nonetheless able to continue his programme and finished in 11th spot.

Felipe Drugovich had his sole planned practice outing of the campaign with Aston Martin – with Jak Crawford set to run in Abu Dhabi – and he finished 18th, having encountered a slow-moving Piastri in the final sector, with Robert Shwartzman carrying out duties for Sauber.

Sergio Perez finished the session in 10th place on home turf, a thousandth of a second behind RB’s Liam Lawson.

READ MORE – F1 2024 Mexico City Grand Prix – FP1 Results

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Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz set the quickest time during the sole practice session for Formula 1’s United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas.

Austin is hosting the fourth of six Sprint events this season, with Friday lunchtime’s session the sole hour of practice ahead of sprint qualifying.

Several teams, including title contenders Red Bull and McLaren, have introduced upgrade packages, with the hour of running key to getting a handle on the new parts.

Ferrari was not among them and Sainz used the known quantity of the SF-24 to go fastest, setting a time of 1:33.602s.

Sainz’s time left him 0.021s faster than Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc, amid a wave of improvements late in the session once drivers switched to Soft tyres.

World Champion Max Verstappen, who leads the standings by 52 points, was third-fastest, 0.253s behind Sainz.

His title rival Lando Norris, who completed his hot lap with flow viz paint still on the updated MCL38, was fourth-fastest, just 0.013s behind, despite running wide at Turn 12.

Oscar Piastri wound up fifth-best and had an unusual moment when he slid wide on the entry to pit lane and had to stay out on track for another lap.

Mercedes had a problematic session as both drivers struggled in the W15, with Lewis Hamilton sixth, and George Russell seventh.

Hamilton had a wild spin on the entry to the Esses early in the session, losing control of the car into Turn 3, while Russell also saved a moment at the same curve.

Russell went on to have a spin at Turn 1 and also had a couple of excursions elsewhere.

Kevin Magnussen was eighth in the old-spec Haas VF-24, with Nico Hulkenberg in 11th place in the updated car.

Fernando Alonso and Yuki Tsunoda rounded out the top 10 for Aston Martin and RB respectively.

Liam Lawson – who will take a grid penalty for Sunday’s race – was 13^th for RB on his first session back in Formula 1, in place of Daniel Ricciardo.

Red Bull’s Sergio Perez finished the session down in 16th position.

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Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc led the way during the opening practice session for Formula 1’s Singapore Grand Prix.

Leclerc posted a time of 1:31.763s during the one-hour daytime session at the Marina Bay Street Circuit to beat McLaren’s Lando Norris by just 0.076s.

Leclerc’s Ferrari team-mate, Carlos Sainz, was third-best, while championship leader Max Verstappen was fourth-fastest at the only circuit on the calendar where he has yet to take a race victory.

RB enjoyed a strong session, with Yuki Tsunoda fifth, and Daniel Ricciardo seventh, sandwiching McLaren’s Oscar Piastri.

Last weekend’s race winner Piastri had a scruffy session by his standards, with his entry onto the circuit slightly delayed after McLaren noted a problem with his right-rear during pre-session pit stop practice.

Piastri then ran wide through Turn 10 and brushed the wall, though was able to continue without damage, but his best lap left him over half a second down on team-mate Norris.

Alex Albon underlined Williams’ improvements as he finished eighth.

Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and Alpine’s Esteban Ocon rounded out the top 10 in a session which had little in the way of incident or drama.

Albon’s Williams team-mate Franco Colapinto was 11th, just 0.003s behind Ocon, as he got his first taste of the wall-lined venue.

Lewis Hamilton complained of understeer en route to a low-key 12th as the lead Mercedes driver, with team-mate George Russell further back in 16th spot.

Sergio Perez was one of the few drivers to find the run-off early in the session, before winding up in 14th place, while Kevin Magnussen returned to action after his enforced one-event hiatus and classified 17th for Haas.

READ MORE: F1 2024 Singapore Grand Prix – FP1 Results

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World Champion Max Verstappen set the pace during first practice for Formula 1’s Italian Grand Prix as Andrea Kimi Antonelli crashed out.

Verstappen had been languishing down the order but on his Soft tyre run vaulted to the top of the timesheets, setting a lap of 1:21.676s at a very hot and sunny Monza.

Verstappen’s effort left him 0.228s clear of lead Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc, with McLaren’s Lando Norris in third place.

Much of the attention prior to the start of the session had been on Mercedes protégé Andrea Kimi Antonelli.

Antonelli, 18, is in line for a 2025 race seat with Mercedes as the replacement for Ferrari-bound Lewis Hamilton.

The Italian has already tested extensively for Mercedes in old-spec machinery and Friday’s session was his first public appearance behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car.

But it came to a juddering halt just 10 minutes into the session.

Antonelli, having set the fastest middle sector time, lost control of the W15 midway through Parabolica on the recently resurfaced track and spun into the barriers.

The right-hand-side of the W15 sustained damage and the session was halted while the car was removed.

Antonelli, who was not injured in the accident, took no further part in the session.

Hamilton, in the sister Mercedes, finished in seventh position.

Carlos Sainz was fourth for Ferrari while Valtteri Bottas was an eye-catching fifth for Sauber, which has been marooned to the rear of the field for swathes of the season.

Oscar Piastri was sixth, while Williams’ Alex Albon, Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso rounded out the top 10.

Franco Colapinto got up to speed with Williams as the Argentine prepares for his Formula 1 debut.

Colapinto, who has taken the place of Logan Sargeant, finished the session in 17^th position, seven-tenths of a second behind team-mate Albon.

He had a wide moment through the Parabolic gravel, though was able to return the FW46 to the pit lane.

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McLaren driver Lando Norris set the fastest time during first practice at a windy Zandvoort, during a limited spell of dry running.

Heavy rain fell during the build-up to the one-hour session, with several drivers staying in the garages, while strong gales buffeted the circuit throughout running.

The track surface dried sufficiently for slick tyres to be run for the final 10 minutes of the session, with the circuit becoming busier after the initial quiet spell.

Norris moved to the front as conditions improved before World Champion Max Verstappen vaulted to the front.

But Norris reasserted his authority with a time of 1:12.322, on Soft tyres, to finish 0.201s ahead of Verstappen, who has won all of the grands prix held at Zandvoort since the event’s revival in 2021.

McLaren, which trails Red Bull by 42 points in the Constructors’ Championship, is introducing the biggest raft of updates since its transformative Miami package.

Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton was third-best though his prospects of challenging for top spot were thwarted when he encountered traffic through the final sector.

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was the fastest Medium-shod runner in fourth place, ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell, and Williams’ Alex Albon.

Williams has introduced its largest upgrade package of the campaign, partly targeted at reducing the FW46’s weight, though the car still remains slightly above the minimum limit.

Oscar Piastri was seventh for McLaren, ahead of Haas pair Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen, with Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu rounding out the top 10.

Ferrari test driver Robert Shwartzman had his first FP1 outing of the campaign for Sauber, in place of Valtteri Bottas, and finished in 16th position.

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