Charles Leclerc was fastest in FP1 of F1 Singapore GP by 0.076s, as Lando Norris took the mantle in FP2 by 0.058s from Leclerc.
FP1 –
Daniel Ricciardo – a man currently facing speculation about his future – was the first to hit the track as the session got under way at 1730 local time, but one driver who looked set to remain in the garage was Oscar Piastri after an unusual problem had affected the Australian’s car during a pit stop practice earlier in the day.
The McLaren’s rear-left tyre had seemingly become stuck, with the team subsequently stating that “this isn’t an issue we’ve seen before” and that they intended to “assess the issue fully to ensure we have no further issues this weekend”. As the first laps went on the board amid a mixture of medium and hard tyres being used across the field, Norris set the early pace on the medium compound with a lap of 1m 33.903s, half a second ahead of championship rival Max Verstappen.
While Piastri was able to join the session after spending the first 10 minutes in the pits, his countryman Ricciardo soon found himself in the garage due to the RB team struggling to remove an aero rake from his VCARB 01. The slippery conditions sparked a few moments out on track, with Sergio Perez briefly bringing out a yellow flag after going into the run-off area at Turn 16. Elsewhere, Valtteri Bottas reported that he had been “blocked” by the Williams of Franco Colapinto.
Leclerc – a driver who is yet to win in Singapore – had put himself at the top of the timesheets by the halfway point, just as others started to bolt on the soft tyre for some flying runs. Norris promptly returned to P1 on the C5 rubber, while the Williams pair caught the eye by going into the top 10 off the back of their double points score last time out in Azerbaijan.
Fernando Alonso pulled off an impressive save after taking too much kerb and nearly losing his Aston Martin as the track continued to evolve and the times kept on tumbling. The Spaniard’s team mate Lance Stroll, meanwhile, sparked the ire of Yuki Tsunoda, with the RB encountering the Canadian running slowly in his path.
It was Leclerc who had gone fastest of all by the end of the hour with his effort of 1m 31.763s, putting him just 0.076s clear of Norris, while the Monegasque’s Ferrari team mate Carlos Sainz – who claimed a stunning victory in Singapore last year – took third. Verstappen went fourth fastest, ahead of Tsunoda in fifth and Piastri – who had a brush with the wall in the latter stages, picking up some damage to his wheel hubcap – slotting into sixth. Ricciardo followed in seventh, with Albon, Alonso and Alpine’s Esteban Ocon rounding out the top 10.
Colapinto took P11 in his third F1 race weekend, ahead of the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton in P12 and Pierre Gasly in P13 for Alpine. Perez went 14th quickest, having complained about struggling to turn his Red Bull during his final laps, with Stroll behind in 15th. George Russell was down in P16 following on from his surprise podium finish one week ago in Baku, while the returning Kevin Magnussen put his Haas in P17 in front of the Kick Sauber pair of Bottas and Zhou Guanyu, leaving Nico Hulkenberg to bring up the rear in P20.
FP2 –
After a twilight opening practice session, the sun set at Marina Bay and the floodlights took over around the circuit ahead of FP2, which would give the drivers and teams another hour to set up their cars for the weekend ahead. An opening phase on the medium and hard tyres saw the Ferraris form a provisional one-two thanks to a 1m 31.655s from Leclerc and a time three-tenths slower from Sainz, followed by Williams racer Alex Albon, Russell and the RBs of Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo.
Then, around 20 minutes in, drivers began to move to the soft rubber for some qualifying-style simulations, with Albon among the first to do so and taking over at the top of the timesheets, albeit only 0.015s faster than Leclerc’s effort on mediums. When the rest of the times came in, it was Norris who held P1 on a 1m 30.727s, putting him just under a tenth clear of Leclerc, who reported that he touched the wall at the exit of Turn 14 and asked Ferrari to check the data for any damage.
Sainz backed up team mate Leclerc in a distant third, with Tsunoda and Ricciardo sandwiching the other McLaren of Oscar Piastri, and Russell leading the Mercedes charge in seventh despite losing his front wing when he crashed at Turn 8 in the closing minutes. Azerbaijan race winner Piastri came close to some drama when he ran wide at Turn 7 during his soft tyre run and then thumped the wall at Turn 17, with team mate Norris also brushing the concrete barrier exiting Turn 3 and taking to an escape road to avoid traffic.
Sergio Perez was the fastest of the Red Bulls in eighth, reporting an “all over the place” car balance after being given a black and white flag for crossing the white line at the pit exit to avoid a slow-moving Aston Martin, while team mate Max Verstappen featured back in 15th. Verstappen, who entered the session having been punished by the FIA for swearing in Thursday’s press conference, wound up 1.2 seconds off the pace, behind a group including Albon, Mercedes’s Lewis Hamilton and the Haas and Aston Martin cars.
Hamilton was another to experience a challenging session, reporting “no rear end” and “massive understeer” early in the hour and replying “it’s unbelievable” when told over the radio that his soft-shod lap had only put him 11th, between Nico Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso. Franco Colapinto – who mistakenly stopped at the wrong pit box when returning from a run – finished 16th in the second of the Williams machines, as the Alpines of Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly and the Kick Saubers of Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas brought up the rear.
[Note: The story is as per press release]
