Red Bull’s Verstappen lapped in 1m50.491s on intermediate tyres, ahead of Williams duo Felipe Massa and Lance Stroll.

The Red Bull Racing driver made the best of the very limited running on offer, emerging from the garage on inters at just the right time to end up 1.5s clear of Massa and Stroll.

It took more than 45 minutes for the session to properly get going, thanks to a lengthy red flag. The stoppage was initially called just seconds after the session had started, due to weather conditions in Shanghai being unsuitable for the medical helicopter to land at the hospital if needed.

It wasn’t until 12:47pm local time, 47 minutes after the session started, that the track went green again.

While not actually raining, the circuit was still wet, the majority of drivers appearing on wets before quickly switching to intermediates.

The changeover proved a little tricky for the Haas drivers, both Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean spinning on the intermediates.

It was Lance Stroll that set the first step forwards on the inters, turning a 1m54.508s into a 1m52.507s to go fastest.

Verstappen then proved beyond doubt that the intermediate was the best compound, moving ahead of Stroll with a 1m52.266s before immediately improving to a 1m50.491s.

That wound up being the best time of the session. With half an hour to go a virtual safety car was called while crews retrieved Nico Hulkenberg’s beached Renault from the Turn 3 gravel trap.

And by the time that was cleared, the red flag was back out as conditions grounded the medical helicopter again. With four minutes to run, and no sign of improvement in the weather, the session was called off.

Verstappen ended up 1.5s clear of the two Williams drivers, with Grosjean splitting Toro Rosso drivers Carlos Sainz and Daniil Kvyat behind the top three.

Fernando Alonso was the last of the drivers in the 1m53s in seventh, Daniel Ricciardo down in eighth, 3.5s slower than his teammate, after seven laps on the inters.

The premature end to the session meant none of the Mercedes or Ferrari drivers were anywhere near the front of the field. Valtteri Bottas did the most running of the ‘big four’, just four laps on the wet tyres leaving him ninth in the times.

Lewis Hamilton didn’t set a time, having been strapped in an ready for a run right as the second red flag was called. It was a similar story for Ferrari drivers Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen, neither setting a time.

Pos	Driver	Chassis	Time	Gap
1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1'50.491
2	Felipe Massa	Williams	1'52.086	1.595
3	Lance Stroll	Williams	1'52.507	2.016
4	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Toro Rosso	1'52.840	2.349
5	Romain Grosjean	Haas	1'53.039	2.548
6	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	1'53.314	2.823
7	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1'53.520	3.029
8	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1'54.038	3.547
9	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1'54.664	4.173
10	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	1'55.104	4.613
11	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	1'55.608	5.117
12	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren	1'57.445	6.954
13	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	2'15.138	24.647
14	Antonio Giovinazzi	Sauber	2'15.281	24.790
15	Jolyon Palmer	Renault
16	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari
17	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari
18	Esteban Ocon	Force India
19	Sergio Perez	Force India
20	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes