Kimi Antonelli has been noted by race control for an impeding incident with world champion Lando Norris. The world champion was not happy with the Italian on the previous lap, so we'll keeo our eyes on this one.

Norris is in sixth, good enough for SQ3, while his team-mate McLaren team-mate is fourth.

The timesheet is beginning to follow a pattern with other teams having a brief stint at the summit before both Mercedes cars are unleashed. Kimi Antonelli pushes Charles Leclerc down to third but it's George Russell who again banks the quickest marker, three tenths faster than his team-mate.

Better for Red Bull as Max Verstappen goes quickest and Isack Hadjar slots into third place but Charles Leclerc is eating up the purple sectors. The Ferrari drivers flies to the top with a time nearly a second clear of four-time world champion Verstappen.

Both Red Bull cars made it through to SQ2 but what will this second session bring Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar? Frenchman Hadjar also flagged issues with his car in SQ1, so could this be a difficult weekend for the team?

First times are coming in and it's Oliver Bearman who goes quickest, with a load of dust from the final corner accompanying him.

George Russell topped that opening sprint qualifying session but the Ferraris of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were a lot closer than we've seen so far. Hamilton was 0.118 seconds away from the Mercedes while Leclerc was 0.164s off in third.

Max Verstappen was down in 11th spot and far from happy with the performance of his Red Bull. There'll be disappointment over at Williams, too. Both cars out in SQ1, while the likes of Audi and Alpine had cars in the top 10.

SQ2 is green. Brand new set of medium tyres are required for all drivers.

17. Carlos Sainz (Williams)

18. Alex Albon (Williams)

19. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)

20. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)

21. Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac)

22. Sergio Perez (Cadillac) no time

"Someone check this driveability, it's horrendous," says Max Verstappen as he's pulled back into the Red Bull garage.

Chequered flag is out and Pierre Gasly moves to seventh on the timing tower. Carlos Sainz has now fallen into the elimination zone, so two Williams could be heading out in SQ1 in Shanghai. Oliver Bearman has a moment in the Haas but the Brit is safe in 12th place.

With Sergio Perez out of the running, five drivers will be eliminated instead of six today. Ales Albon has dropped into the danger zone for Wiliams, joining the likes of Franco Colapinto in the Alpine and the two Aston Martins. Valtteri Bottas and his Cadillac is also in trouble.

Kimi Antonelli briefly put his Mercedes ahead of Lewis Hamilton but his team-mate George Russell is once again showing he has speed underneath him this year. The Briton's time is a 1:33.030.

The Ferraris have come back into the mix, though, with Hamilton second quickest, about a tenth off Russell's time, and Charles Leclerc third, 0.393 seconds away from the Silver Arrow.

Oscar Piastri takes a crack at Lewis Hamilton's time but can only second, before world champion team-mate Lando Norris finds a bit more pace in his McLaren but is still off on Hamilton's marker.

The Mercedes have now joined the action in Shanghai. Will they shoot straight to the top of the timesheets? Erm... yes.

Charles Leclerc goes quickest but is fighting his Ferrari quite a bit around the lap. Lewis Hamilton goes one better than his team-mate and tops the timesheets with a 1:33.730.

The Audi of Nico Hulkenberg knocks Leclerc down the order and slips into second behind Hamilton.

Isack Hadjar gets us off the mark in SQ1 with a top time of 1:34.447 on his medium compound. Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen slots into second, the two drivers trading quickest sectors. Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad nip into the top four in the Racing Bulls.

This is Cadillac's first journey into the world of sprint racing but the new team will only have Valtteri Bottas out on track, as a fuel system issue has stopped Sergio Perez from taking part in qualifying.

Image source, Getty Images

If you're just waking up this morning and you need a bit of a refresh on how the sprint weekend works, fear not. Here's a little reminder.

Sprint qualifying has three sessions, where now the six slowest cars instead of five are knocked out from the first two - like normal qualifying.

These sessions, known as SQ1, SQ2 and SQ3, last 12, 10 and eight minutes respectively.

This will make up the grid for the sprint race.

The top eight finishers score points, from eighth for first place to one for eighth spot, which will get added to the overall drivers' championship standings.

At last year's sprint race in China, Lewis Hamilton secured his first victory for Ferrari when he triumphed from pole position ahead of McLaren's Oscar Piastri and Red Bull's Max Verstappen.

Sprint number one of six for the 2026 season is green.

For SQ1, you need to medium tyres for this session.

BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra

Hello again to Harry Benjamin, former McLaren Formula E driver Sam Bird and F1 correspondent Andrew Benson. The team are in position and ready to take us through sprint qualifying, so here are the ways you can listen to Sports Extra commentary.

You can click the 'listen live' tab at the top of this page, ask your smart speaker to "play BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra" or if you're heading out the door to go to work, don't worry, because you can tune in via the BBC Sounds app.

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The Ferrari mechanics are tinkering with the active aerodynamics on the car and gone is the upside down rear wing we saw in first practice, that first caught the eye in Bahrain testing. We might see it again over the course of the weekend but for sprint qualifying, it's been put back in the box.

If you're wondering how the wing actually works, F1 correspondent Andrew Benson has this handy explainer for us:

"Ferrari were using the innovative rear wing with a flap that opens for the straight-line mode by revolving on its axis by more than 180 degrees, rather than a gap opening by the front of the flat being lifted."

Image source, Getty Images

Briton Ollie Bearman also collected points at last week's Australian Grand Prix, finishing the race one place higher than compatriot Arvid Lindblad in seventh.

Speaking to Sky Sports after first practice, Bearman said China could be a decent circuit for Haas to score more points this weekend, as its characteristics are similar to Bahrain where pre-season testing took place last month.

"Generally, we looked stronger in Bahrain where energy is a bit more plentiful," said Bearman. "In Australia, it's not the case; lots of kerbs, lots of weird things that you have to do to get enough energy."

Image source, Getty Images

British rookie Arvid Lindblad put in a great performance in Australia last weekend to score points on his debut but the teenager missed a chunk of first practice after coming to a stop in his Racing Bulls.

Team principal Alan Permane told Sky Sports after the session the team were not sure why Lindblad's car came to a stop. "It just switched off, lost everything," he said, "the engine just switched off."

This will be Lindblad's first experience of a frenetic sprint weekend but Permane said the Shanghai circuit should be easier for drivers to manage when it comes to the new engine split of combustion and electrical power. "[China] is a more energy-rich track for the power units," he added.

A concern every team can agree on, though, is looking after the tyres. "In the sprint last year, everyone, apart from Lewis [Hamilton], suffered from heavy front-left tyre graining," said Permane. "So you need a set-up that is good over a lap but also protects the tyres during the race."

The tyres are one-step harder than last week's Australian Grand Prix, with the C2 as the hard, C3 as the medium and C4 as the soft compound.