EL1 in Shanghai: Vettel draws first

By stopping the stopwatch at a time of 1’33”911, Sebastian Vettel relegates Lewis Hamilton more than second but the performance gap is undoubtedly even greater because the driver of the Team was playing on medium tires when the Briton Mercedes was turning tender at the moment when the two multiple world champions set their best mark.

Charles LeclercHe no more, did not put on the red C4 envelopes this morning in Shanghai and finished 3rd in Free Practice 1, 0”256 behind his teammate’s SF90. The Monegasque precedes the Red Bull de Max Verstappen, while the Mercedes of the leader of the Drivers classification Valtteri Bottas only appears in 5th place. 

After a complicated start to the season at Renault, Daniel Ricciardo puts the nose of his R.S.19 in 6th position, ahead of his replacement at Red Bull, Pierre Gasly. The Frenchman takes in his wake the Toro Rosso of Daniil Kvyat and the Racing Point of Lance stroll. Like the Ferraris, these three men set their best time with Pirelli's C3 medium yellow tires. 

Romain Grosjean completes the morning Top 10 with the highest ranked Haas VF-19. His teammate Kevin Magnussen follows at 10 thousandths, ahead of the Renault of Nico Hulkenberg, modest 12th time. 

Discreet session also for McLaren de Lando Norris et Carlos Sainz, respectively 13th and 16th, as well as the Alfa Romeo : Kimi Räikkönen finished in 15th place when his garage neighbor Antonio Giovinazzi finished the session without having been able to sign a single flying lap. 

The Williams continue to move towards the bottom of the rankings. Robert Kubica is almost three seconds behind the benchmark set by Vettel, while his rookie teammate George Russell is seven tenths further back. 

Full classification from our first 90 minutes of action in Shanghai #ChineseGP #Race1000 pic.twitter.com/u6VULPe1jA

— Formula 1 (@F1) April 12, 2019

Ferrari clearly impressed during these first Chinese runs. Does the Mercedes team have the means to counter the red armada this weekend? To find out more, come to the second free session of the Chinese Grand Prix at 14:00 p.m. local time (08:00 a.m. in France).