Practice 1 Report - Leclerc on top

Charles Leclerc
© Ferrari

Charles Leclerc put Ferrari on top at the end of FP1 for the Singapore Grand Prix, with title contender Lando Norris very close on his heels. With Max Verstappen not far behind, in fourth place, there seems to be at least three teams in position to fight at the front this weekend, a continuation of what we saw last weekend in Baku.

While traditionally FP1 in Singapore is a sedate affair, the teams saving tyres for FP2, where they'll run at night and in the same weather conditions expected for qualifying and the race, today the session was more in line with what we see in traditional Grand Prix, as lower than expected temperatures and a cloudy sky allowed the teams to run in conditions very close to what they expect to find tonight.

That's why almost all the drivers covered more than 25 laps and there was a lot of running done with the Soft tyres, as the compound was lasting quite a lot of laps in a very slippery and dirty track, while, normally, they're maximum grip disappears after just one lap. Leclerc told his team that "we can go faster" as he as called to the pits to start a high fuel run, but no one managed a perfect lap this early in the weekend, as track conditions continue to improve all the time.

Leclerc was his usual self, going flat out from the word go and that led to a couple of big moments for the Ferrari driver. On his first flying lap on Soft tyres Leclerc went quite wide on the last corner and later on he had light contact with the wall on the outside of Turn 14, without damaging his SF-24. But with Leclerc on top of the time sheets and Sainz in 3rd place, just 0.2s behind his team mate, the Scuderia looks to be as strong as it was in Baku one week ago.

Lando Norris was on a mission right from the start of the session, being the first top driver in action and the first of all to switch to Soft tyres, as he wants to put his Baku qualifying issues behind him. The fact the English driver was just 0.066s slower than Leclerc, with a time set earlier in the session, when the grip level was lower than what his rival found later in the session, sets him in good stead for the rest of the weekend. Piastri's session was compromised by a delayed start, as the team had to make changes to the left rear corner of his car after finding an issue just minutes before the start of the session. The Australian only lost 13 minutes of track action but was playing catch up from then on. Light contact with the wall in Turn 10 forced a precautionary stop but as there was no visible damage, the Australian continued his session. He was, however, only 6th quickest and half a second away from Norris' best time, so he'll have work to do to be fighting at the front in qualifying and the race.

Mercedes opted for a more traditional Singapore FP1 preparation, both drivers doing just one quick lap on the Soft tyres and focusing on race preparation, but neither of them was happy with the balance of their cars. Lack of traction was an issue for Hamilton and Russell, the veteran setting the 12th quickest time of the session while his team mate was down in P16, more than 1.5s slower than Leclerc's best effort.

For Red Bull it was Verstappen's pace that gave some encouragement, the Dutch driver improving a lot on the Soft tyres after his team made some changes to the set-up of the RB20, while Pérez was unable to be close to his team mate and was only 14th quickest, more than 0.6s away from Verstappen. In any case, the picture will be clear after FP2, when everyone will be running identical programs in preparation for the rest of the weekend.

With both Mercedes and Pérez out of position, there were a few surprise guests inside the top ten. VCARB got Tsunoda up to P5 with Ricciardo in 7th place, even if the Japanese driver was unhappy with the brakes of his car, while Albon proved, again, how much Williams is improving by setting the 8th quickest time, making the most of the new front suspension that is only available for him this weekend. Colapinto, with the old suspension, was 11th quickest, another impressive effort for the rookie and close to Alonso and Ocon, who completed the top ten in this session.