It was contrasting mood in the Ferrari camp with Kimi Raikkonen topping the second practice session of the Singapore GP when teammate Sebastian Vettel couldn’t set a quick time.
The Finn beat Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton (1m38.710s) by only the 0.011s margin on his quick lap, with the Top 5 drivers within a second of Raikkonen’s (1m38.699s) time. Max Verstappen (1m39.221s) made it three different teams in the Top 3.
The Red Bull Racing driver had some issues later in the session but was still able to set the third-best time following up from the FP1 session with the Dutchman leading teammate Daniel Ricciardo (1m39.309s).
Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas (1m39.368s) finished fifth ahead of the Renault’s Carlos Sainz as the leading driver in the best of the rest section. The Spaniard clocked a 1m40.274s which was more than 1.5s from Raikkonen.
Haas’ Romain Grosjean (1m40.384s) finished seventh with McLaren’s Fernando Alonso (1m40.459s) having a good run to be eighth from Vettel (1m40.633s) as Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg (1m40.668s) rounded out the Top 10.
It wasn’t a great end to Vettel’s session after he brushed the wall in the penultimate corner on his quick lap. He was looking to better Raikkonen’s time but aborted it after the hit. The team tried to fix the issue but it was too much in the end in the short time.
Racing Point Force India’s Sergio Perez (1m40.774s) ended up 11th just outside the Top 10 with an improved running from Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson (1m40.812s) despite a spin in the session. The Swede was in a Force India sandwich with Esteban Ocon (1m40.870s) in 13th.
Sauber’s Charles Leclerc (1m41.062s) was not far behind in 14th with Haas’ Kevin Magnussen (1m41.154s) only 15th – presumably he didn’t get a clear run on his quick lap. McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne (1m41.164s) also had a better run to be 16th.
The two Toro Rosso drivers Brendon Hartley (1m41.542s) and Pierre Gasly (1m41.615s) had a tough run to be 17th and 18th respectively with Williams’ Lance Stroll (1m42.141s) and Sergey Sirotkin (1m42.181s) rounding the 20 finishers.