George Russell fastest from Charles Leclerc in sole Singapore GP practice
George Russell sets the pace for Mercedes in the only Singapore Grand Prix practice session.
George Russell set the pace in the sole practice session at the Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix.
The Briton, who will start from the back of the grid for Sunday’s race after taking a new engine, ended up 0.198 seconds faster than Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, while Lando Norris was third for McLaren, 0.273s adrift.
Lewis Hamilton wound up fourth and nearly half a second off the pace but the seven-time world champion aborted his final soft tyre run when the seven-time world champion had been set to improve prior to a big slide through Turn 10.
Oscar Piastri was fifth for McLaren as the final driver to use soft tyres in FP1, with Max Verstappen the fastest medium runner in sixth. The Red Bull driver was 0.732s off the pace in his Red Bull.
F1 Singapore Grand Prix: Full Friday practice results
Championship leader Andrea Kimi Antonelli also used the medium tyres as he took seventh running Mercedes new-specification aerodynamic package.
Mercedes is carrying out a back-to-back comparison during the Singapore weekend in a bid to understand whether the major upgrade it brought to the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia worked.
Antonelli, who is 84 points clear in the championship, is in the latest version of the W17, with Russell using the old-spec Mercedes as he takes on an experimental role for the Silver Arrows.
Isack Hadjar was eighth in the second Red Bull, with Pierre Gasly and Liam Lawson completing the top-10 for Alpine and Racing Bulls respectively.
Practice was largely uneventful bar Nico Hulkenberg stopping at the end of the pit lane with a problem in his Audi.
Drivers struggled with a lack of grip on a very dusty track in Singapore, with conditions unrepresentative compared to those to come in qualifying and Sunday’s grand prix.
The Cadillac drivers were slowest of all, with Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas, who cycled from Malaysia to Singapore rather than flying, 21st and 22nd.
It is straight into competitive action next, with sprint qualifying taking place at 13:30 UK time.
Singapore is staging a sprint race for the first time ever this weekend.
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