Singapore Grand Prix – Free Practice 1: Leclerc ahead of Norris and Sainz

One week after the streets of Baku, the drivers will race this weekend on the tarmac of Singapore. Maximum difficulty for the drivers and their single-seaters under the stifling heat of this city-state in southern Asia.

This first testing session starts calmly: yellow and white tires are preferred. Already, McLaren and Ferrari are showing good pace with Charles Leclerc setting the fastest times alongside Lando Norris in this session. It is worth noting that Ferrari has introduced a new front wing in Singapore to maximize aerodynamic performance and gain more downforce.

At mid-session, Norris is the first to put on the soft tires and sets the best time ahead of Leclerc. However, the McLaren slides a lot on the red tires, indicating that an optimal balance has not been reached yet. Nevertheless, this is enough to place him ahead of Verstappen and Hamilton.

It is then the turn of Ferrari and Williams to switch to soft tires. Impressive time for Alexander Albon who finishes his lap in less than three tenths of Lando Norris and who is ahead of Lewis Hamilton. Norris improves his own time by more than three tenths while Piastri is a bit further back in this first session.

The track is rubbering in and gaining grip: all drivers switch to soft tires to improve their lap times. Yuki Tsunoda is doing a very good job by placing his AlphaTauri in fifth position, ahead of his teammate Daniel Ricciardo, who is under pressure this weekend. Rumors suggest Singapore as his last Formula 1 weekend, possibly replaced by the young Liam Lawson.

At the back of the grid, Haas and Sauber are struggling to find pace, just like Mercedes, with Hamilton and Russell in eleventh and sixteenth positions. Alpine are also having difficulty getting up to speed with the top cars on the grid. Williams is the team that stands out with both its drivers in the top 10 less than ten minutes before the end of the session. Red Bull, still in the running for both the driver’s and constructor’s titles, is struggling to compete with Ferrari and McLaren: Verstappen is a bit behind and Perez is in fourteenth position, one second behind Charles Leclerc who is leading the timesheet.

A calm first session to kick off the weekend in Singapore, with McLaren and Ferrari appearing to be the fastest cars, even though Oscar Piastri is lagging a bit. Stay tuned for the second session, at night this time.

The ranking of the first free practice session.