The Friday in F1 Singapore GP had an interesting order with the likes of Williams, Aston Martin and Visa Cash App RB drivers in the mix with front-runners.
The FP1 on Friday in F1 Singapore GP saw Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso take centerstage but McLaren’s Oscar Piastri bounced back in FP2 to claim the top spot in a hampered session. The Australian felt better as the day progressed after a 50-50 start to practice.
Teammate Lando Norris didn’t feel the same like he did last year. The Brit was slightly downbeat after having to re-learn everything after dominance last year. He was not as bothered with the pitlane skirmish with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, which damaged the Brit’s front wing.
Ferrari was handed a fine as Leclerc played down the incident. The Monegasque didn’t feel the best in FP2 to be far down in the Top 10, but teammate Lewis Hamilton – despite the result – was confident again after making progress. He doesn’t wish to change the setup going forward.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was pleased, especially on a track which hasn’t suited his F1 machinery off-late. He is still not as quick but he hopes the step will come from Friday to Saturday. Teammate Yuki Tsunoda was pissed due to hampered FP2 run, which limited his long run.
He will modify a bit in his FP3 plan to accommodate long run, which has troubled him most. Mercedes’ George Russell was confused by the incident in FP2 but felt the pace is there, as did teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli, whose quick laps were affected by the double incidents.
Verstappen: “It was not too bad. I think FP1 started quite nicely, we were just getting up to speed with things but the car was not too bad. A bit like the last two weekends where there were no major problems and then in FP2, a few things that we tried, some were good so we just need to try and optimise that a bit more. Overall and in general, quite satisfied but definitely need a bit more pace to fight up at the front tomorrow.
“Tiny details. Front grip, rear grip, keeping the tyres alive throughout the lap. Around here, the tyres overheat a lot, so all those things just need to be a little bit better and hopefully that will be a bit more in the window and then you can push also a bit harder.”
Norris: “No, I mean it cost the team a bit of money [due to broken parts], which is a shame. “Just a difficult day for me – not feeling too great with the car, missing all of the feelings that I had here last year. Plenty of things to work on. Just a bad day. Oscar’s quick. I’ve got nothing to complain about bar just not doing a very good job. Yeah, just wing it and go into the race.”
Leclerc: “Good FP1, very difficult FP2. It’s been just a very messy FP2 with the traffic and with the red flags and with the pit lane incident. Lots of things going on which haven’t been very positive but we’ll reset and come back stronger tomorrow. I think the pace is in the car so that’s the good thing. Speaking with him [mechanic] I think it was a bit of confusion with the two McLarens going out and it looked like they were going out at the same time.
“So he thought they would go out a bit slower so I didn’t have the message to stop and in these kind of cases you kind of rely on the team. But this kind of thing happens. It was also in a tricky moment because with all the red flags, everyone was such in a rush to get out to do some laps. It’s a combination of things, it’s not something you want but these things happen.”
Russell: “It was a bit of a weird one, to be honest. I’m not too sure what happened. I braked a bit earlier, went in a little bit slower, then just lost the rear. Thankfully I sort of went in front-end on and didn’t do too much damage. Obviously game over, so it’s a bit annoying. I’m sorry to the team for that, but better today than tomorrow. FP1 was challenging. In those early laps [of FP2] I had a much better feel with the car, to be honest.
“The pace seemed better. We didn’t complete any [proper] laps, so there was no sort of real lap time on the board, but at least the laps, if you took the sectors together, felt better. As I said, it’s not been our best Friday by a long way. At Singapore, the track’s always evolving, there’s a bit of rain in the air, so I’m not too concerned.”
As alluded above, Alonso set the pace in FP1 and looked good in FP2 as well, so much so, that he rated it as his best Friday of F1 2025. Teammate Lance Stroll couldn’t make the most of it in terms of result and position, but felt good in the car like the Spaniard.
Visa Cash App RB’s Isack Hadjar found himself second in FP2 but looked equally good in FP1 as well. He says the car works well, but reckons Aston Martin to be faster. Teammate Liam Lawson felt good in the car to back Hadjar’s call, but he was caught out by too much kerb riding which ended his session early.
Williams’ Carlos Sainz was in good shape as well in the Top 10 and in the mix alongside Aston Martin and Visa Cash App RB. Teammate Alexander Albon rued the brake issue in FP1 and hampered FP2 session, which left him with only handful of laps under his belt, going into Saturday.
Even though Haas didn’t find itself high up in the order, but Esteban Ocon was pretty happy with his running. In fact – like Alonso – he rated his Friday to be the best of F1 2025 as well. Teammate Oliver Bearman felt good in the car as well, even though he couldn’t get as close to the Top 10.
The likes of Sauber and Alpine had a decent outing, but couldn’t push itself very close to the Top 10 positions. All four – Nico Hulkenberg, Gabriel Bortoleto, Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto – didn’t feel awfully bad in the car. But it wasn’t great either for a smooth ride into Q3.
Alonso: “It seems a little bit better than the previous Grands Prix. Let’s try to fine-tune the set-up; it’s still not in a happy place, especially on the front axle, still a little bit too much understeer. It’s something to work on tonight. But I think it’s a good start, and let’s see what we can do tomorrow. I think since the first lap in FP1 we were in a comfortable place, and we were able to find the limits quite quickly.
“In FP2 obviously the red flags didn’t help to see the full picture, so I don’t know the top teams if they put the lap together or not, but let’s see if we can be in Q3 tomorrow and [score] points on Sunday. I think both sessions in the top four, probably it’s the best Friday so far. But as I said, sometimes on Friday we run with different programmes than the others, or different fuel. It’s not the first time that happened, so the real test is tomorrow in Qualifying. But we are a little bit more optimistic than the previous two races.”
Hadjar: “Yeah, I mean the car works well. I’m comfortable on this track even though it’s my first time – I really like it. But we’re not as fast as we look, to be honest. We’re still in the game but I still think Aston Martin are quicker. We did our lap time quite late in the session, we are struggling to switch on the tyres on the first push lap, so there’s still some work to do. Really annoying. Traffic was not easy. Every time I was on a lap I had a bit of traffic, then I’m on a good lap and then there’s a red flag, so it’s a bit frustrating but we handled it really well.”
Ocon: “It’s been a very solid day, I’m very happy with it, it’s probably been the best Friday of the year for us. We need to wait and see, we need to keep chasing, as you know with balance and the good grip we had today, normally there are a lot of things that change overnight. Tonight as a team we need to keep the maximum of what we had today, and just make small changes ahead of tomorrow.”
Hulkenberg: “It’s great to be racing in Singapore again. FP2 was quite disrupted with red flags, so it wasn’t the usual Friday run plan, and nobody managed proper long runs, which makes Sunday a bit more of an unknown for everyone. We didn’t really get consistent runs together today, so there’s some homework to do overnight. We need to work on the balance and tidy up a few areas, but overall, we gathered useful information to build on. In terms of conditions, I believe it felt more manageable than last year – whether that’s down to the weather or the cooling system working well.”
Lawson: “FP2 wasn’t the session I hoped for, having caught a little bit too much kerb at turn 16. This bounced me across to the left at turn 17 while carrying the speed, which put me into the wall. Overall, the car has been very fast today despite a tricky FP1. We’d tried a few different things before a much more comfortable FP2 up until the moment which ended my session. We’ll be making some more changes overnight and I’ll learn from today so we can pull everything together for Qualifying.”
Albon: “Not our best Friday today. Unfortunately, we had an issue in FP1 with our rear brakes, so we didn’t get any track running in and started the day on the back foot. It is so important to get laps in around this circuit because the track is so peaky and the windows are very small, so not getting subsequent laps puts you in a position where you just keep trying to learn the circuit. It was a very disjointed day, especially with the red and yellow flags, but we’ll see what we can understand from today and look to restart tomorrow.”
Gasly: “It is always a unique challenge driving in Singapore with the conditions. It is not an easy one for us as it is very bumpy and that is an area where we tend to struggle more. So, it’s been a busy day at the wheel and it’s been good to try lots of things to try and further understand what we need to improve our package. The gap to the cars ahead is still not where we would like it to be but we will focus on ourselves and see what we can do to improve.
“There are a couple of corners here where I know we can do better tomorrow so we will try and work on those. I am feeling good in the car in terms of being comfortable at its limit. We need more than that, though, so we will see what more we can do. We also tried the cooling device today. I must say I don’t have any thoughts and feelings on it, so that probably means it was quite seamless and worked as intended.”
Here’s crash of George Russell: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-singapore-gp-fp2-russell-out-of-the-session-after-barrier-hit-at-turn-16.1844970257943690460
Here’s crash of Liam Lawson: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-singapore-gp-fp2-lawson-rips-off-his-front-tyre-after-hitting-the-wall.1844970498199594036
Here’s pitlane incident: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-singapore-gp-fp2-norris-and-leclerc-collide-in-the-pit-lane.1844972068268037922
Here’s how Friday in F1 Singapore GP panned out
