F1 results: Sainz fastest in Singapore GP practice on Friday

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

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

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)