2026 Chinese Grand Prix - Friday

๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ Audi F1 R:2.2026 Chinese GP: Practice 1 & Sprint Qualifying (Friday)

R:2 SCHEDULE

DAY/DATEACTIVITYLOCAL TIMECETEST
Fri 13 MarF1 Academy Practice09:10-09:5003:10-03:503/12 9:10-9:50 PM
Fri 13 MarPractice 111:30-12:3005:30-06:303/12 11:30 PM – 12:30 AM
Fri 13 MarF1 Academy Qualifying14:00-14:3508:00-08:352:00-2:35 AM
Fri 13 MarSprint Qualifying15:30-16:1409:30-10:143:30-4:14 AM
Sat 14 MarSprint11:00-12:0005:00-06:303/13 11:00 PM – 12:00 AM
Sat 14 MarF1 Academy Race 113:45-14:2007:45-08:201:45 AM – 2:20 AM
Sat 14 MarQualifying15:00-16:0009:00-10:003:00-4:00 AM
Sun 14 MarF1 Academy Race 210:40-11:1504:40-05:153/13 10:00-11:15 PM
Sun 14 MarGrand Prix15:0009:003:00 AM

R:2 RACE INFORMATION

AUDI REVOLUT F1 | FORMULA 1 SERIES


R:2 FREE PRACTICE #1 RESULTS

2026 Chinese Grand Prix – Friday

FULL RESULTS | WATCH BROADCAST

POS.NO.DRIVERTEAMTIME/GAPLAPS
163George RussellMercedes1:32.74129
212Kimi AntonelliMercedes+0.12030
31Lando NorrisMcLaren+0.55529
481Oscar PiastriMcLaren+0.73128
516Charles LeclercFerrari+85828
644Lewis HamiltonFerrari+1.38826
787Oliver BearmanHaas+1.68528
83Max VerstappenRed Bull+1.80024
927Nico HulkenbergAudi+1.89827
1010Pierre GaslyAlpine+1.93528
125Gabriel BortoletoAudi+2.08726

R:2 SPRINT QUALIFYING RESULTS

2026 Chinese Grand Prix – Friday

FULL RESULTS | WATCH BROADCAST

POS.NO.DRIVERTEAM1Q2Q3LAPS
163George RussellMercedes1:33.0301:32.2411:31.52013
212Kimi AntonelliMercedes1:33.4551:32.2911:31.80913
31Lando NorrisMcLaren1:33.7831:33.0861:32.14113
444Lewis HamiltonFerrari1:33.1481:33.0421:32.16115
581Oscar PiastriMcLaren1:33.8131:33.0381:32.22413
616Charles LeclercFerrari1:33.1941:32.6021:32.52816
710Pierre GaslyAlpine1:33.9701:33.4051:32.88815
83Max VerstappenRed Bull1:34.1701:33.5641:33.25417
987Oliver BearmanHaas1:34.2801:33.5011:33.40916
106Isack HadjarRed Bull1:34.4471:33.6201:33.72315
1127Nico HulkenbergAudi1:33.9971:33.63514
145Gabriel BortoletoAudi1:34.2911:34.327

TEAM SUMMARY

2026 Chinese Grand Prix – Friday

Audi Revolut F1 Team was on the cusp of a place in Sprint Qualifying 3 as competitive action for the Chinese Grand Prix kicked off in earnest in Shanghai. In the session to set the grid for tomorrow morningโ€™s Sprint, Nico Hulkenberg was 0.015s away from a spot in the top ten, closing with the 11th fastest time. Team-mate, Gabriel Bortoleto, was 14th, with both cars progressing solidly from the first segment of the session and steadily in the midfield mix.

With tomorrowโ€™s 100km event rewarding the top eight finishers with points, there will be plenty to fight for in Shanghai; furthermore, every bit of knowledge about the carโ€™s behaviour around this track will be carried over to the afternoonโ€™s Qualifying session and Sundayโ€™s showpiece event, the race.


TEAM QUOTES

2026 Chinese Grand Prix – Thursday

Jonathan Wheatley, Team Principal
โ€œA sprint weekend always brings its challenges for the teams, as there is very little time to learn about the car before going straight into sprint qualifying and then the sprint race itself – the momentum builds very quickly. With these new and very complex cars, arriving at a new circuit means you are constantly learning more about the package โ€” understanding where the performance is and where improvements are needed, lap after lap.

โ€œConsidering those challenges, I think the team did a good job between FP1 and sprint qualifying to address the main areas where we could extract performance from the car, and the result was a fair reflection of our pace today. There are still some issues the drivers have been highlighting since the winter, which remain a focus for us as we continue to develop the car. On Nicoโ€™s side we briefly lost communication during SQ2, but the team was able to resolve that issue once the car returned to the garage.โ€

โ€œOur priority now is to have a clean sprint race and then see what progress we can make ahead of qualifying.โ€

2026 Chinese Grand Prix – Thursday

Nico Hulkenberg, Car #27
FP1: 9th / 1:34.639 (27 laps)
SQ1: 1:33.997 (8 laps)
SQ2: 11th / 1:33.635 (6 laps)

โ€œIt is a shame to miss out SQ3 by such a small margin, but overall, P11 is still a solid result. In SQ2 I lost radio communication with the team, so I had to manage part of the run on my own, which made things more complicated. 

โ€œAside from that, the feeling with the car has been good since this morning. We look to be right in the midfield fight again, which is encouraging. Itโ€™s very tight out there, so weโ€™ll take what weโ€™ve learned today and aim to move forward tomorrow.โ€

2026 Chinese Grand Prix – Thursday

Gabriel Bortoleto, Car #5
FP1: 12th / 1:34.828 (26 laps)
SQ1: 1:34.291 (8 laps)
SQ2: 14th / 1:33.774 (6 laps)

“It’s been a bit of a tricky Friday for us. We came across a few issues during Free Practice which appeared again during Sprint Qualifying, keeping us on the back foot. Of course, it’s a different type of track from what we’ve had so far, with different ranges of corners, and we’re discovering once again how our car is behaving. Looking at the Sprint tomorrow, let’s see what we can achieve. It’s a quite short race obviously, and after that, weโ€™ll make sure to fix any issue that is going on in the background, in order to go into qualifying in a better place and give it our best.”

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