Free Practice 1 – Hamilton is the first leader of a night GP

Lewis Hamilton was the fastest driver in this first free practice session of the night Grand Prix taking place in Singapore. The cars navigated the city streets, illuminated by numerous spotlights installed for the first time on a Formula 1 track.

The Ferraris took the second and third places with Felipe Massa trailing Hamilton by 0.080 seconds but having a four-tenths of a second lead over his teammate Kimi Räikkönen.

Heikki Kovalainen finishes in fourth place in the second McLaren, followed by Robert Kubica’s BMW.

Giancarlo Fisichella (Force India) and Jenson Button (Honda) had the honor of being the first to complete a timed lap. They were quickly outpaced by Timo Glock in a Toyota and Fernando Alonso in his R28, who emerged as the initial leader.

The title contenders cautiously took to the track. Hamilton was the first among them to make a strong mark with a time of 1:47.160 halfway through the session.

Alonso briefly took the lead before Hamilton’s next fast lap. The two Ferraris then each led as there was half an hour remaining.

The English hero gradually returned to the top. Initially, he was 0.068 seconds behind Räikkönen, then he surpassed the Finn by one-tenth of a second.

The Ferrari driver remained a threat to Hamilton up until the last two minutes, but each time Räikkönen lost time in the final sector. Hamilton then went even faster on his last lap with a 1.45.518.

Massa jumped to second place just 0.080 seconds behind the McLaren in the final moments, while Räikkönen chose to forgo what seemed to be an even faster lap.

Behind Räikkönen and Kovalainen, we find Kubica in 5th place after a spectacular end to the session on his part, with an incident around turn 10 to his credit.

Nico Rosberg was fast throughout the session and ultimately finished sixth in his Williams, ahead of Fernando Alonso, Nick Heidfeld, Nelson Piquet in the second Renault, and Jenson Button, who shows promising prospects for Honda in 10th place.

Mark Webber has the unfortunate ‘honor’ of being the first driver to crash on the Marina Bay circuit. The Australian took too much speed in the tunnel under the main grandstand and crashed his Red Bull-Renault into the barriers on his fifth lap. He is dead last in this session.

Rubens Barrichello also ended the session in the wall, although his Honda sustained little damage.

He was not the only driver to be caught out by the last corner. Kovalainen and the two Toyota drivers, Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock, had quite a scare…

Results Free Practice 1 – Singapore GP – 26 September 2008