The first part of sprint qualifying ends with Sergio Perez quickest.

Both Mercedes improve to avoid elimination.

Mercedes opted not to get involved in any fast laps during practice as they stuck to hard tyres throughout.

George Russell needs to find some improvement, however as he is 18th, while Lewis Hamilton currently has the 11th quickest time.

Andrew Priestely: Cars slipping and sliding all over the place on this greasy track. We’ve not been used to seeing that with these usually planted ground-effect cars.

Three minutes of the session to go and those in trouble at the moment are:

15) Carlos Sainz

16) Alex Albon

17) George Russell

18) Esteban Ocon

19) Logan Sargeant

20) Yuki Tsunoda

Here come the Red Bulls, however, who were clearly holding back in practice and Max Verstappen goes fastest with 1:36.456, before he is knocked down into second by team-mate Sergio Perez, who is three tenths quicker.

Charles Leclerc then goes 0.353s quicker than Lewis Hamilton to move top of the order, with Lando Norris just 0.004s slower to go into P2.

"It is spitting more," reports George Russell as his team-mate Lewis Hamilton goes quickest with 1:37.239.

Everyone is on mediums.

The clock is counting down from 12 minutes as we get a close up look at the panda helmets the Williams drivers are wearing.

I'd say they are just straddling the line between cute and unsettling.

Image source, Getty Images

Here they come! There's a big cheer from the home crowd as Zhou Guanyu is among those heading out.

The first part of qualifying for the sprint race is under way.

There's engines firing up, but no-one sprinting out just yet.

Right then! Here we go.

Qualifying for tomorrow's sprint race gets under way shortly and you can listen to the session live now via this page and BBC Sounds.

Like qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix itself there will be three sections - SQ1, SQ2, SQ3 - to determine pole for tomorrow's sprint race.

Brandon Whiteside: I wonder if we will look at back at this weekend and see it as one of the best of the season. A track that drivers haven't raced on for at least five years, coupled with the new gen cars that have never raced in Shanghai before + a sprint weekend. I'm excited for certain!

Ian Fergusson
BBC weather forecaster

Air temp is 20.5C & the track 29.1C. Wind from SSE. Currently dry, but rain will establish on into this evening & tonight, easing through tomorrow morning. FIA official risk of rain is 60% for this session.

This is the first of six sprint weekends this season, and the format is slightly different to last year's events.

Qualifying for the shorter sprint race takes place today, rather than on the Saturday, following the only practice session of the weekend.

The 100km sprint will then take place as the first track action tomorrow, ahead of main qualifying for the grand prix in its regular slot later in the day.

Sunday's race also remains unchanged.

The other five sprints weekend take place in Miami, Austria, Austin, Brazil and Qatar.

Image source, Getty Images

Hello!

If you opted to stay in bed for practice for the Chinese Grand Prix then the good news is you didn't miss much as the session gave little insight into how teams are shaping up for this weekend.

That, however, was the only practice session they will have, with qualifying for the first sprint race of the weekend coming up in the next 15 minutes.

Andrew Benson
BBC F1 correspondent

Image source, Reuters

Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll topped the times at the end of a first practice session at the Chinese Grand Prix that offered few clues as to the weekend ahead.

The Canadian was 0.327 seconds ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen third from team-mate Sergio Perez and Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg.

Ferrari, the second fastest team so far this season, were 13th and 14th with Charles Leclerc ahead of Carlos Sainz.

Mercedes drivers George Russell and Lewis Hamilton were 17th and 18th.

The former champions ran only hard tyres in the session, during which Hamilton complained that the car was “really bad”.

China returns to the calendar for the first time since 2019, following an interruption for the pandemic and the country’s handling of the Covid.

Shanghai also hosts the first ‘sprint’ weekend of the new season, with a new format introduced this year.

Qualifying for the sprint is at 08:30 UK time on Friday, with the sprint race the first track action on Saturday followed by grand prix qualifying later the same day.

The session was interrupted for a few minutes early on when the grass caught fire on the inside of Turn Seven.

Otherwise, there was little incident of note as the teams engaged in varying programmes trying to set their cars up for the weekend.

Right, you've time now to pop back to bed for a couple of hours with sprint qualifying getting under way at 08:30 BST.

I'll leave you with Andrew Benson's practice report while I go eat some crumpets.

A mixture of programmes there, with Mercedes opting not to get involved in any quick laps and instead sticking to long runs and the odd low fuel run.

Max Verstappen was third quickest but there's no doubt more in the bag for Red Bull.

Pierre Gasly isn't happy with finishing last in that session.

"This was not acceptable. I've not learned anything," he fumes.

11) Zhou

12) Tsunoda

13) Leclerc

14) Sainz

15) Sargeant

16) Norris

17) Russell

18) Hamilton

19) Alonso

20) Gasly