By F1 correspondent Michael Butterworth

SHANGHAI, April 19 (Xinhua) -- Aston Martin's Lance Stroll set the quickest time in the Formula One Chinese Grand Prix's first and only practice session, which was interrupted by a grass fire.

With lap times tumbling as the hour wore on and more rubber was laid down, several drivers took it in turns to top the leaderboard, and Stroll's time of 1:36.302 saw him emerge fastest, 0.327s ahead of McLaren's Oscar Piastri.

The session was briefly but bizarrely interrupted for several minutes when the grass at the inside of Turn 7 caught fire, leading to a red flag while the conflagration was extinguished by nearby marshals.

Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez were third and fourth, with suggestions that the Red Bull duo were masking their true pace on a circuit where they are expected to be favorites to win.

Several drivers finished in unfamiliar places, with the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz ending up 13th and 14th.

Piastri's teammate Lando Norris finished 16th, but the Briton almost certainly would have been considerably higher had he not aborted his one push lap on Soft compound rubber.

Further down the field, Mercedes' George Russell and Lewis Hamilton were a lowly 17th and 18th respectively, though neither driver used Soft tyres throughout the session.

In a troubled hour, Hamilton was also shown the black and white flag for unsporting behavior after he failed to stay to the right of a bollard when entering the pit lane.

Stroll's teammate Fernando Alonso also didn't use Soft tyres and ended up 19th, ahead of an unhappy Pierre Gasly in 20th and last place, with the Frenchman complaining to his Alpine mechanics that his session was 'completely unacceptable' and that he had learned nothing from it.

With China playing host to the first F1 Sprint event of 2024, this was the weekend's only practice session, as teams and drivers now gear up for Sprint Qualifying later on Friday afternoon. Enditem

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