Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were 13th and 14th fastest respectively in the one and only free practice session for the Chinese Grand Prix, which saw teams all running very different programmes to each other.
39 laps. However, after setting not very representative times of 1’41”109 for the Spaniard and 1’41”118 for the Monegasque, the session was red flagged when a fire started alongside the track at turn 2. With just over half an hour remaining, the session resumed and the Scuderia drivers set their best times. Leclerc did a 1’38”090 and Sainz stopped the clocks in 1’38”284 on tyres that had already done 13 laps. Towards the end, they focussed on race pace with the SF-24. Charles completed 20 laps, Carlos 19.