Singapore Grand Prix – Free Practice 1: Hamilton’s surprise!

Max Verstappen celebrated his 25th birthday on Friday. What better gift than to offer himself a second world title this weekend? First, they had to work on a circuit that hasn’t hosted Formula 1 since 2019.

The two Alfa Romeos were the first to hit the track, and the (likely) double world champion Verstappen didn’t wait. Charles Leclerc, on the other hand, noticed a brake issue, saying on the radio, “It’s hard to brake.”

Verstappen chose to attack from his first flying lap, setting an impeccable lap time: 1’47’329. The tone is set! Fernando Alonso then snatched the fastest lap from him by 38 milliseconds.

Leclerc, on the other hand, stayed in the garage to have his brakes bled. The Monegasque is starting his weekend off well, so to speak!

The first yellow flag is caused by George Russell, after twelve minutes of the session. The Briton went to kiss the TechPro without breaking his mustache.

While Verstappen annihilates the time (1’44:748), Leclerc remains in the garage… the weekend looks complicated for one of the last barriers to Verstappen’s world title. The two Red Bulls, on the other hand, are smoothly progressing, with Verstappen-Perez in order.

On the French side, Esteban Ocon maintained a solid 5th position, while Pierre Gasly was in 11th place, behind Tsunoda.

And then, Charles Leclerc finally hit the track: he started his work on the hard tires, possibly to save a set of soft tires (if it doesn’t rain this weekend). No one had put on the red rubber yet, before Lando Norris started the work.

The first real performances

The last half hour saw several drivers starting their laps on soft tires, the most high-performance ones in the whole Pirelli range. The track is improving very rapidly, as evidenced by Lance Stroll’s second fastest time, only 985 milliseconds behind the top of the leaderboard.

Lance Stroll was the first to hit the wall, on turn 5, and caused the first red flag of the weekend. His left rear wheel was bent and the Canadian stopped further down the track.

The session was interrupted for five minutes before being resumed. Carlos Sainz had a nice scare in the last turn, before Charles Leclerc set the second fastest time.

Sergio Pérez, on the other hand, six minutes before the end, experienced gearbox issues. He was able to return to the pits immediately.

And then, surprise: Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time! The Briton clocked a time of 1’43:033, even though he described his car as uncontrollable! Verstappen went straight off, but without any consequences.

Lewis Hamilton has therefore achieved a great performance, even if the twilight conditions will have nothing to do with the nighttime conditions…which themselves could contrast with the rain, on Saturday and Sunday!

The results table