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Charles Bradley

F1 results: Sainz fastest in Singapore GP practice on Friday

MercedesLewis Hamilton was fastest in FP1, while Sainz set the quickest time of the day under the floodlights in FP2.

Singapore Grand Prix FP1 results: Hamilton fastest from Verstappen

Cla Driver Chassis Laps Time Gap Interval km/h
1 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 20 1'43.033     176.902
2 Netherlands Max Verstappen Red Bull 20 1'43.117 0.084 0.084 176.758
3 Monaco Charles Leclerc Ferrari 17 1'43.435 0.402 0.318 176.215
4 Mexico Sergio Perez Red Bull 15 1'43.839 0.806 0.404 175.529
5 United Kingdom George Russell Mercedes 21 1'44.066 1.033 0.227 175.146
6 Spain Carlos Sainz Ferrari 24 1'44.138 1.105 0.072 175.025
7 France Esteban Ocon Alpine 24 1'44.736 1.703 0.598 174.026
8 Canada Lance Stroll Aston Martin 12 1'45.221 2.188 0.485 173.223
9 France Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 24 1'45.258 2.225 0.037 173.163
10 Spain Fernando Alonso Alpine 11 1'45.336 2.303 0.078 173.034
11 Germany Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 22 1'45.354 2.321 0.018 173.005
12 Australia Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 21 1'45.724 2.691 0.370 172.399
13 Finland Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 24 1'45.725 2.692 0.001 172.398
14 Denmark Kevin Magnussen Haas 22 1'46.028 2.995 0.303 171.905
15 Japan Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 26 1'46.081 3.048 0.053 171.819
16 Thailand Alex Albon Williams 20 1'46.119 3.086 0.038 171.758
17 China Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 25 1'46.408 3.375 0.289 171.291
18 Germany Mick Schumacher Haas 23 1'46.601 3.568 0.193 170.981
19 United Kingdom Lando Norris McLaren 22 1'46.680 3.647 0.079 170.854
20 Canada Nicholas Latifi Williams 18 1'47.092 4.059 0.412 170.197

What happened in Singapore GP Free Practice 1?

In the daylight of the early evening, Verstappen set the initial pace at 1m47.329s on medium tyres. Alpine’s Fernando Alonso briefly beat that with 1m47.291s before Verstappen lowered the bar to 1m45.466s, then 1m44.748s and 1m44.236s. 

Charles Leclerc suffered a brake problem that cost him valuable track time early on, and George Russell nosed his Mercedes into the Turn 11 barriers. 

Teams gravitated to the softs in the second half of the session, with Ferrari’s Sainz having a huge moment on the exit of Turn 5 but keeping it out of the wall. 

Red Bull’s Sergio Perez reset the P1 bar with 1m43.839s, before Lance Stroll fenced his Aston Martin at Turn 5. Verstappen just managed to get his lap in, a 1m43.117s, before the red flag came out to retrieve Stroll’s stricken car with 20 minutes to go. 

Sainz, who was third-fastest at this point, had a big moment at the final corner but again escaped unscathed. With his brake trouble solved, teammate Leclerc jumped up to second, three tenths off Verstappen. 

Hamilton then shocked everyone by going P1 in a session for the first time this year with 1m43.033s, 0.084s faster than Verstappen, who overshot Turn 16 on his long run on mediums. Leclerc was third, ahead of Russell and Sainz. 

Perez suffered a driveshaft issue that forced him to coast into the pits near the end of the session. 

Singapore Grand Prix FP2 results: Sainz fastest from Leclerc

Cla Driver Chassis Laps Time Gap Interval km/h
1 Spain Carlos Sainz Ferrari 23 1'42.587     177.671
2 Monaco Charles Leclerc Ferrari 14 1'42.795 0.208 0.208 177.312
3 United Kingdom George Russell Mercedes 26 1'42.911 0.324 0.116 177.112
4 Netherlands Max Verstappen Red Bull 8 1'42.926 0.339 0.015 177.086
5 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 22 1'43.182 0.595 0.256 176.647
6 France Esteban Ocon Alpine 23 1'43.412 0.825 0.230 176.254
7 Finland Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 26 1'43.431 0.844 0.019 176.221
8 Spain Fernando Alonso Alpine 23 1'43.520 0.933 0.089 176.070
9 Mexico Sergio Perez Red Bull 13 1'43.906 1.319 0.386 175.416
10 Canada Lance Stroll Aston Martin 21 1'43.982 1.395 0.076 175.288
11 United Kingdom Lando Norris McLaren 16 1'44.013 1.426 0.031 175.235
12 Germany Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 24 1'44.249 1.662 0.236 174.839
13 Denmark Kevin Magnussen Haas 22 1'44.422 1.835 0.173 174.549
14 France Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 22 1'44.469 1.882 0.047 174.470
15 China Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 25 1'44.524 1.937 0.055 174.379
16 Thailand Alex Albon Williams 25 1'45.144 2.557 0.620 173.350
17 Japan Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 11 1'45.211 2.624 0.067 173.240
18 Australia Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 18 1'45.447 2.860 0.236 172.852
19 Germany Mick Schumacher Haas 23 1'45.623 3.036 0.176 172.564
20 Canada Nicholas Latifi Williams 25 1'46.553 3.966 0.930 171.058

What happened in Singapore GP Free Practice 2?

After sundown, Russell ran early on new mediums, setting the pace at 1m44.661s before teammate Hamilton went half a second faster on 1m44.091s. Leclerc was delayed again, as his team removed the floor to fix an issue, and Verstappen lost the first 20 minutes due to a setup change at the front of his RB18.

Sainz rose to the top of the times with 1m43.710s before Hamilton grabbed P1 back with 1m43.668s, despite catching Nicholas Latifi’s Williams. Sainz then went quicker still on 1m43.231s.

Verstappen emerged on the hard tyres, taking fifth spot on his opening lap among the medium runners, 1.4s off the pace.

As in FP1, teams switched to the softs around the halfway point, with Sainz staying on top by lowering his fastest time to 1m42.751s and then 1m42.587s. Russell leapt to second, with Hamilton a further three tenths back in third.

Leclerc, who was running off schedule, grabbed P2 on mediums, albeit 0.295s off his teammate. He emerged on softs in the final 10 minutes and lapped in 1m42.795s, 0.208s away from the fastest time.

Verstappen stayed in the garage again, having more changes made, only rejoining the track on softs in the final five minutes. But he could only manage 1m42.926s, a third of a second off the pace, in fourth place behind Leclerc and Russell.

Esteban Ocon was best of the rest for Alpine in sixth.

Russell repeated his FP1 off but didn’t hit the barrier this time, while Hamilton had a big moment over the Turn 1 kerbs. Kevin Magnussen spun his Haas at Turn 14 and carried on.

Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri burst into flames as he was being pushed back into the garage, but later rejoined the session after the conflagration was extinguished.

The car of Pierre Gasly, AlphaTauri AT03, catches fire in the pits (Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images)
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