Leclerc leads tight opening session in Singapore

Kickstarting a hot and humid weekend of night racing in Singapore, Ferrari finished the opening practice session with both drivers sitting in the top three, separated by Lando Norris around the Marina Bay Street Circuit.

With the city skyline acting as the perfect backdrop for yet another exciting weekend of Formula 1 action, the cars flooded out onto the Singapore streets to commence Round 18.

For one team, however, the action started before the green light was switched on with the McLaren mechanics working at double speed to solve a last-minute complication on Oscar Piastri’s car.

Having undertaken their usual practice pitstops before the session, the left rear wheel of the #81 McLaren had become stuck, with a hammer and chisel the old-school tool of choice to split the wheel nut and dislodge the tyre. 

Working into the session, the mechanics avoided damage to the wheel hub and were able to send the Australian out, albeit slightly delayed as he joined the session over ten minutes later. 

Piastri’s first push-lap was interrupted by Sergio Perez, as the Mexican rejoined the track unsafely after locking up into Turn 16.

Sitting 1.6 seconds off his teammate’s benchmark after his first official run, Piastri worked to improve on his next tour around the 4.9km circuit, promoting his McLaren to the fringes of the top ten with a time of 1:34.094s.

Putting on the soft tyre, Piastri’s time of 1:32.498s moved him into P7, over six-tenths behind his benchmark-holding teammate after a near run-in with the wall at Turn 17.

Piastri minutely improved in the order over the next few minutes, however, was forced to pause his C5 stint after banging the wall at a dusty Turn 10.

Heading back out with a scratched-up right rear wheel, Piastri had less of an impression on the timing sheets, instead setting for P6 in between the RB duo.

Speaking of RB, Daniel Ricciardo was the first driver on track in FP1, sporting a large aero-rake as he conducted a singular exploratory lap.

But in a similar story to his compatriot, the aero-rake got stuck and caused slight damage to the Australian’s VCARB 01 meaning he too lost time on track as he sat in the garage.

Ricciardo rejoined the session with 40 minutes on the clock, commencing his outlap as Yuki Tsunoda jumped into fifth fastest.

Ricciardo soon outpaced his teammate who was running a different program, moving into the top ten to occupy P7 on the hard compound tyre.

One of the last drivers to punch in a soft tyre lap, Ricciardo reinstated his place in seventh, this time only five-tenths behind the benchmark and six milliseconds behind Piastri.

Opting to start the session on the medium tyre, Lando Norris set the early FP1 benchmark on the medium compound tyre, running against the grain of the more popular hard tyre selection that led to Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz joining him in the top three. 

Whilst setting a malleable order, the first round of push laps also revealed sensitive spots for drivers of all experience levels, with Turn 13 nearly catching out rookie Franco Colapinto and veteran Hamilton as they both drifted close to the unforgiving barriers on entry.

Norris continued to punch in purple sector after purple sector, holding the fastest time until Charles Leclerc levelled up on his hard compound tyres, going five-tenths quicker as the track began to evolve and the drivers started to dial in.

Sandwiched between the Ferrari challengers, Norris was one of the first drivers to set a soft compound time comprised of three purple sectors, despite a heavy skid across the kerb at Turn 7.

As a result, Norris found his way back into the lead time, unchallenged by his championship rival who, on the same tyre, sat over two-tenths behind. 

At the halfway mark of the session, the top four times were spread across the top four teams, with Ferrari the only team to have both cars within the top five. 

That puzzle was soon torn to pieces as the rest of the grid made the switch to the soft tyre, with the Williams duo of Alex Albon and Colapinto moving onto what would be the second row of the grid, just moments before Tsunoda dashed into P2.

When the soft tyre runs had settled and drivers were returning to the pitlane, it was Charles Leclerc holding the quickest time of a 1:31.763s set on his second push lap, seven-hundredths ahead of Norris, and one-tenth ahead of his teammate. 

A short lull gave certain drivers time to reflect on the many impeding incidents that had played out throughout FP1, with Perez, Bottas and Colapinto just a few drivers on both the receiving and impeding end of the many incidents during the hour. 

The final five minutes saw no movement on the timing sheets, with the hard and medium tyres reappearing for one last run ahead of the first practice starts of the weekend. 

So after the first hour of practice, the majority of the usual contenders found themselves sharing the top ten with the likes of the RB drivers, Albon, Alonso and Ocon, with Mercedes’ uncomfortable session and Perez’s struggles making room for the midfield drivers at the end of FP1.

Returning to the pitlane as the radios flooded with feedback from the drivers, the teams will have just two hours to work on their setups ahead of the first representative session.

Free Practice 2 will kick off at 11:00 PM, AEST.

Image: Glenn Dunbar / LAT Images

FP1 Results:

2024 Singapore Grand Prix Schedule:

Friday, September 20th:

FP1: 19:30 – 20:30

FP2: 23:00 – 00:00

Saturday, September 21st:

FP3: 19:30 – 20:30

Qualifying: 23:00 – 00:00

Sunday, September 22nd:

Race: 22:00

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