» Vettel sets the early pace in Shanghai

Sebastian Vettel aimed to show no ill effects from a mistake-hit outing in Bahrain less than two weeks ago by posting the fastest time in the opening practice session of the Chinese Formula 1 Grand Prix.

With the event being celebrated as the 1,000th World Championship event, the Ferrari pilot ended the session 0.2 seconds clear of the Mercedes of arch-rival Lewis Hamilton. What will no doubt please Vettel is that his fastest time in the session was posted on the Medium (C3) Pirelli tyre compound, while Hamilton’s slower time came on the quicker Soft (C4) rubber.

Whether this is truly indicative of a Ferrari performance advantage remains to be seen. Behind the top-two came Vettel’s teammate Charles Leclerc, who lapped less than five-hundredths of a second slower than Hamilton. The Monégasque driver, who was cruelly denied victory last time out in Bahrain when his MGU-H short-circuited, finished less than 0.2 seconds ahead of Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen, with the second Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas a further three-tenths adrift.

Defending Chinese Grand Prix winner Daniel Ricciardo will be hoping he can return to form after a nightmare start to his career as a Renault factory driver. The Australian – sporting an eye-catching helmet design that pays tribute to Sir Jack Brabham – ended FP1 ‘best of the rest’ in sixth place on the time sheets, albeit over 1.3 seconds off Vettel’s ultimate pace.

Finishing behind Ricciardo in P7 was the man who took over his Red Bull Racing seat: Pierre Gasly. The French driver did not run on the soft Pirelli tyres during the session and was over a second slower than teammate Verstappen as a result. He finished ahead of Daniil Kvyat (Toro Rosso), Lance Stroll (Racing Point) and Romain Grosjean (Haas), who rounded out the top ten and were separated by just 0.06 seconds.

Stroll provided one of the few incidents of note when he spun his RP19 across the track at the final corner in the early minutes of the session, but was able to continue.

Antonio Giovinazzi only managed one installation lap in his Alfa Romeo, with the team discovering an engine installation issue that took the rest of the session to solve.

FORMULA 1 HEINEKEN CHINESE GRAND PRIX 2019 – FREE PRACTICE SESSION 1
	Driver	Team / Entry	Time	Gap	Laps
1.	Sebastian Vettel	Scuderia Ferrari SF90	1:33.911		19
2.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes-AMG Motorsport W10	1:34.114	+ 0.207	21
3.	Charles Leclerc	Scuderia Ferrari SF90	1:34.167	+ 0.256	21
4.	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing RB15	1:34.334	+ 0.423	20
5.	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes-AMG Motorsport W10	1:34.653	+ 0.742	23
6.	Daniel Ricciardo	Renault F1 Team RS19	1:35.239	+ 1.328	23
7.	Pierre Gasly	Red Bull Racing RB15	1:35.428	+ 1.517	23
8.	Daniil Kvyat	Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda STR14	1:35.447	+ 1.536	24
9.	Lance Stroll	Racing Point F1 Team RP19	1:35.466	+ 1.555	25
10.	Romain Grosjean	Haas F1 Team VF-19	1:35.507	+ 1.596	24
11.	Kevin Magnussen	Haas F1 Team VF-19	1:35.517	+ 1.606	25
12.	Nico Hülkenberg	Renault F1 Team RS19	1:35.591	+ 1.680	22
13.	Lando Norris	McLaren F1 Team MCL34	1:35.631	+ 1.720	24
14.	Alexander Albon	Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda STR14	1:35.695	+ 1.784	26
15.	Kimi Räikkönen	Alfa Romeo Racing C38	1:35.729	+ 1.818	23
16.	Carlos Sainz Jr.	McLaren F1 Team MCL34	1:35.756	+ 1.845	24
17.	Sergio Pérez	Racing Point F1 Team RP19	1:35.820	+ 1.909	24
18.	Robert Kubica	ROKiT Williams Racing FW42	1:36.847	+ 2.936	27
19.	George Russell	ROKiT Williams Racing FW42	1:37.619	+ 3.708	29
20.	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo Racing C38	no time		1