Beijing / China

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France's Gabriella Papadakis/Guillaume Cizeron smashed the competition in the Ice Dance, taking the lead by more than eight points. Two-time World medalists Madison Chock/Evan Bates (USA), and multiple European medalists Ekaterina Bobrova/Dmitri Soloviev, of Russia, are almost tied in second and third place.

Papadakis/Cizeron's Samba and Rhumba to 'Shape of You' and 'Thinking Out Loud' featured smooth footwork and well-synchronized twizzles. The two-time World Champions picked up a level four for the twizzles, Rhumba pattern and the straight line lift, while the side by side step sequence merited a level three.

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The three-time European Champions set a new personal best of 81.10 points. "It was a very good performance, especially for the beginning of the season," Papadakis said. "We made a lot of improvement on the technical score compared to the beginning of the season but also to last year."

"We worked with Christopher Dean on the short dance and he came up with the idea (to skate to Ed Sheeran), which we loved," Cizeron added. "The music has this Urban Latin feeling. It is very popular and fun to dance to."

Dancing to salsa, rhumba and samba, Chock/Bates produced level-four twizzles and a level-four lift as well as two level-three elements to score 72.66 points.

"We're so happy to be back at the Grand Prix in China," Chock said. "This is our first event this season. We felt we skated really well today, it was a fun performance for us. There were a few low levels, so we have to go back to the drawing board and have a look at that, and make some improvements."

Bobrova/Soloviev's dance to rhumba and two samba pieces included level-four twizzles and a level-four rotational lift, but the side-by-side footwork was rated a level two, like Chock/Bates.

The 2013 European Champions scored 72.34 points, four points below their season's best. "We have mixed feelings,” admitted Soloviev. "We were very pleased with our performance, but we are a bit upset with some of the levels. It is still the beginning of the season and some mistakes can happen. But tomorrow is a new day. We love our free dance and hope it will be better."

Tiffani Zagorski/Jonathan Guerreiro (RUS) came fourth with 67.62 points, followed by 2016 World Junior Champions Lorraine McNamara/Quinn Carpenter (USA/63.65 points) and Angelique Abachkina/Louis Thauron (FRA) with 59.91 points.

The ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating series consists of six events and culminates in the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final in Nagoya (JPN) in December.

The top six skaters/couples in each discipline qualify for the Final. The global prize money for the Grand Prix is US$272,000. Full entry lists and results of the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating 2017/18 are available here. Follow the discussion on social media by using #GPFigure #FigureSkating