Daily Times

Early championship leader Lando Norris knows he will face a new series of challenges at this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix, including the first sprint race of the season.

Warm and dry weather is forecast for Saturday’s sprint and Sunday’s second grand prix of the year on the 5.451km Shanghai International Circuit, where long turns and heavy braking zones are notoriously punishing on tyres.

The conditions will be a marked contrast to last weekend’s wet and wild season-opener in Melbourne, a race run almost entirely on intermediate wet tyres and punctuated by long stints under the safety car.

McLaren’s Norris survived a late slither onto gravel, damaging his car’s floor, before holding off a charging Max Verstappen to take the chequered flag.

It is a fast turnaround to China, where teams will have just 60 minutes of practice on Friday morning to fine-tune their set-ups before the afternoon’s sprint qualifying shootout.

The 19-lap sprint race is on Saturday morning before grand prix qualifying later the same day. Sunday sees the main race over 56 laps.

Norris finished a distant second behind Verstappen’s Red Bull when Formula One returned to China last April after a five-year absence, but the Englishman is now the man to beat.

“I’m confident that when we go to China we can be very strong because we were strong there last year with not a very good car,” Norris said after his Melbourne victory.

Verstappen’s success in Shanghai a year ago was his fourth in five races as he dominated the early season before going on to win his fourth world championship.

But in Australia on Sunday Verstappen was easily dropped by the McLarens once Oscar Piastri passed him for second place.

Verstappen was at one stage 16 seconds adrift before a Piastri spin and a safety car gave him a late chance to pressure Norris.

“We only have a few days before we are in China so not sure how much we will be able to find and turn around,” said the Dutchman, who is seeking a fifth consecutive world title, a feat only previously achieved by Michael Schumacher.

Verstappen also won the sprint in China last year, blasting past Lewis Hamilton in a Mercedes.

Now with Ferrari, Hamilton’s debut for the Italian team saw the seven-time world champion berate a car that was “a lot worse” than he thought it would be as he came home 10th.

Hamilton and team-mate Charles Leclerc were also compromised by being left out too long by the team on slicks when rain returned.

Both know they are already playing catch-up.

“McLaren and Red Bull had serious pace so there’s work to do, but we’ll dig deep,” said Hamilton. “I’m looking forward to getting back in the car in China.”