Lewis Hamilton was fourth quickest as Ferrari bounced back from a dismal opening race in Australia last weekend to split the dominant McLaren duo ahead of sprint race qualifying later on Friday.
Norris won in Melbourne and McLaren would have had a one-two if not for Piastri’s late spin, which handed defending four-time world champion Max Verstappen second in his Red Bull.
Verstappen, who won both the sprint race and the grand prix in Shanghai last year, struggled and aborted his final lap on soft tyres leaving him only 16th fastest.
Norris clocked 1min 31.504sec around the resurfaced 5.451km Shanghai International Circuit, where long turns and heavy braking zones are notoriously punishing on tyres.
He was 0.454sec ahead of Leclerc with Piastri 0.195 further back.
The conditions were a contrast to last weekend’s wet and wild season-opener in Melbourne that saw several crashes and stints under the safety car.
The session was the teams’ only opportunity to hone their set-ups before Friday afternoon’s sprint qualifying.
Times tumbled as the new asphalt rubbered in.
The “big four” teams – Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes – all battled for early supremacy, swapping fastest times on the medium compound tyres.
It was a much improved session for Ferrari after Melbourne, where the seven-time world champion Hamilton came home only 10th after the team strategists gambled and lost on leaving him out on slick tyres in rain.
Leclerc was eighth with Ferrari’s five points representing their worst season-opening performance since 2009.
Rookie Jack Doohan failed to complete a lap on his debut and had more woe in Shanghai when his Alpine lost power, bringing out the red flags 13 minutes from the end of the session.
At that point all the teams had run only on medium tyres.
When the session resumed with eight minutes to go it saw a congested dash from the pit lane to record a qualifying simulation lap as everyone bolted on the faster softs.
George Russell’s Mercedes was fifth fastest.
Nico Hulkenberg’s Sauber was sixth, with Alex Albon’s Williams, Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin, Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes and Yuki Tsunoda’s RB making up the rest of the top 10.
The 19-lap sprint race will take place on Saturday morning before grand prix qualifying later the same day.
Sunday sees the main race over 56 laps. (AFP)
