F1 Chinese GP Friday practice and sprint qualifying as it happened

Green lights at the end of the pit lane, and the on-track action has continued. 

10 minutes of SQ2 coming up. We'll once again see the medium tyres on show, with a single set permitted for use. 

Sainz fails to improve and is out. He'll start in P17 at best. 

The flag has fallen, and these times now really matter!

On their latest runs, Hamilton and Leclerc have managed to split the Mercedes drivers. With safety already assured, Russell, Antonelli, Norris and Piastri have elected to remain in the garage for the closing moments. 

The Williams pair complete their first meaningful times and we can now start talking about the dreaded drop zone. Currently, Albon, Colapinto, Stroll, Alonso, and Bottas join the already out Perez in those positions. 

Order is resumed, as Russell and Antonelli land their first blows to go 1-2. Hamilton remains third, with Norris and Piastri both ahead of Hulkenberg. 

Hold the phone, where did that come from? Hulkenberg has put in a spectacular effort to split the two Ferrari drivers. This is all a little bonkers.

Leclerc's Ferrari looks a real handful with bags of oversteer after changing the rear wing. He goes to the top, but that wasn't comfortable. Hamilton finds life considerably simpler, though, and displaces his team-mate by 0.518s.

A nice tow from Bottas gives Hadjar some extra speed on the back straight, as he takes to the top. Verstappen crosses the line moments later and falls 0.006s short. 

Mercedes, Alpine and Williams have all remained in the garages, and will attempt their initial efforts in the gap between timed runs for the rest. The drawback is that an error from any of them could come with a greater cost. 

Go, go, go! The track is immediately busy as the 12-minute session begins. 

The music has played, and it's time to get things going for what is a largely unpredictable Sprint Qualifying session. Unpredictable, that is, unless you're talking about the front row. Barring any incident, the top two will be a Mercedes lock-out. 

After completing just six laps in practice before his Racing Bulls gave up the ghost, Lindblad will take part in the coming session. 

Little over 10 minutes remains before we get underway in the session. As a refresher, SQ1 will last for 12 minutes, with SQ2 lasting 10 and SQ3 just eight minutes. As with a regular qualifying session, six drivers will drop out from each of the first two phases. 

Unlike a normal Saturday session, tyre usage is mandated. In SQ1 and SQ2, a single set of medium tyres can be used in each. In SQ3, one set of softs can be run. 

In a painful - and admittedly, quite funny - moment in Australia, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff was seem smacking his head while entering the paddock on his scooter. This time, neither he nor Mercedes are taking any risks. 

Albon has been reprimanded following practice, after completing a practice start while other cars were stationary on the same side of the grid. 

He admitted that he had simply misjudged what the car ahead of him was going to do. As he also broke after realising the situation, there was enough mitigation to avoid a more substantial penalty. 

Switching gears, and indeed, wings. 

A big change for Ferrari ahead of Sprint Qualifying, with the Macarena rear ring removed in favour of the team's more conventional wing. After trailing both Mercedes and McLaren in practice, the Scuderia will be hoping to move forward a couple of places with this switch. 

Much as was the case in Australia, reliability was a big talking point in practice, with Lindblad and Sainz the two drivers most notably affected.