Copyright: Reuters
Aston Martin's Lance Stroll set the fastest time at the end of the first practice session for the Chinese Grand Prix, but there was little to suggest for the weekend.
The Canadian beat McLaren's Oscar Piastri by 0.327 seconds, leaving Red Bull's Max Verstappen in third behind teammate Sergio Perez and Haas's Nico Hulkenberg.
Ferrari, the second fastest team so far this season, were 13th and 14th, with Charles Leclerc ahead of Carlos Sainz.
Mercedes' George Russell and Lewis Hamilton were 17th and 18th.
The former champion ran only hard tires in the session, during which Hamilton complained that the car was “really bad”.
China has returned to the calendar for the first time since 2019 after a hiatus due to the pandemic and response to the coronavirus.
A new format will be introduced in Shanghai this year, as well as the first 'Sprint' weekend of the new season.
Sprint qualifying will take place on Friday at 8:30am UK time, with the sprint race having its first track action on Saturday, followed by Grand Prix qualifying later the same day.
The session was interrupted for several minutes early on when a fire broke out in the grass on the inside of Turn 7.
Other than that, there was little of note as the teams worked on various programs to set up their cars for the weekend.
