Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo started the Singapore GP in style leading teammate Max Verstappen in the first practice session with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel in third.
The first session in Singapore GP tends to be the least important one as track conditions differ a lot from nightime weather. The timesheet, however, might give us some hints about how the rest of the weekend is going to unfold.
The Red Bull drivers led the session with Ricciardo on top and Max Verstappen only two tenths behind his teammate, both of them clocking their best on the hypersoft compound. Vettel was only driver to stay close to Red Bull’s pace.
Teammate Kimi Raikkonen was fourth, a further five tenths slower than Vettel. Surprisingly, the Renault drivers mixed themselves up with Mercedes with Nico Hulkenberg finishing fifth ahead of Lewis Hamilton.
The British driver was followed by Reanult’s Carlos Sainz and Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas – the Mercedes drivers though set their fastest laps with the soft compound. Sauber’s Charles Leclerc and Haas’ Romain Grosjean completed the Top 10.
The Monegasque though ended the session with a broken suspension of his Sauber after clipping the wall at Turn 13. McLaren, meanwhile, continued to suffer problems with Fernando Alonso complaining of low power and Stoffel Vandoorne early as well.
The Belgian finished last agaib after facing loss of hydraulic pressure. In terms of incidents, Leclerc’s was not the only one in the session as many drivers ran wide or spun which including Bottas and Raikkonen.
Position 11-20: Marcus Ericsson, Sergio Perez, Kevin Magnussen, Alonso, Esteban Ocon, Pierre Gasly, Brendon Hartley, Lance Stroll, Sergey Sirotkin and Vandoorne.