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Ferrari continued its strong form in Marina Bay with Carlos Sainz third in the sister car, the top three split by less than two-tenths.
Red Bull Racing was also there or thereabouts with Max Verstappen fourth fastest, while RB impressed with both Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo in the top seven.
The first and third practice sessions in Singapore are curious affairs. The meaningful running takes place under lights, while opening practice begins in the late afternoon sun.
Not that there was much of it, overcast conditions helped keep a lid on temperatures, which were already above 30 degrees.
The focus was therefore on the basics; confirming right height, wing levels, and other elements of set-up with less focus on specifics such as tyre wear, which were more difficult to extrapolate meaningful data from.
That prompted a split approach from the field, with half on hard compound tyres, and the other half on mediums.
Not among them as the session began, however, was Oscar Piastri, whose car had suffered a problem during pit stop practice earlier in the day.
“During this morning’s pit stop practice we encountered an issue on the rear-left corner of Oscar’s car, which we are currently replacing,” a McLaren spokesperson confirmed in the minutes before practice began.
“This isn’t an issue we’ve seen before, but we want to assess the issue fully to ensure we have no further issues this weekend.
“We hope to get Oscar out before the end of FP1.”
Norris was on track in the other McLaren early, his rear wing coated in flo-vis as the team assessed a beam wing upgrade for this event.
Seven of the 10 teams have upgrades in Singapore, Mercedes, Sauber, and Haas the trio without.
Though support categories had been on track earlier, Porsche Carrera Cup Asia and F1 Academy, the circuit remained dirty, catching a number of drivers out, particularly under braking.
There were also snaps of oversteer in tractions zones as the rear tyres battled for grip, more than one driver skating onto the exit kerbs only to be thrown further sideways as their cars bottomed out.
George Russell was caught out, so too Sergio Perez, who came a cropper into Turn 16, rejoining just as Piastri rounded the right-hander for the first time in the session.
Fernando Alonso did well not to fire his Aston Martin at the wall after mounting an exit kerb at Turn 6.
Daniel Ricciardo was the only driver without a time after 20 minutes, the Australian with just three laps to his name while RB team-mate Yuki Tsunoda had three times that – and sat sixth fastest.
There was nothing wrong for the Australian, the team was simply biding its time as it worked through its program.
At Red Bull Racing, Perez’s car was put on stands as work was carried out underneath the Mexican’s car a third of the way through proceedings.
He sat 18th fastest at the time, for what it was worth, though the timesheets were not especially representative.
At the top, there were large gaps between drivers, with Alex Albon fourth fastest and Franco Colapinto sixth for Williams.
Meanwhile, Perez had been pushed to 19th and Max Verstappen was only 12th, demonstrating the irrelevance of the timesheets in the early stages.
McLaren had done well to minimise the impact the earlier issue had on Piastri.
The Australian lost only 10 minutes of the session, arguably the least important 10 minutes of the weekend, and he was on track without enough time to make up for lost time.
Typically, he was in no hurry and sat midtable through the first half of the session.
Later on he did begin to push, and there was a brush with the barrier at the old Singapore Sling.
Though conditions were hardly comparable to qualifying tomorrow, teams still elected for performance runs through the middle of the session.
Again there were some interlopers in the mix suggesting drivers were not at 100 percent.
Track conditions were also a factor, Leclerc doing well to hold on to his Ferrari after running wide at the final corner on an early effort lap.
After his qualifying simulation, Norris was fastest, three-tenths clear of Sainz with Tsunoda third. Verstappen sat fourth from Alex Albon, Leclerc, and Piastri.
Despite the track conditions, times were comparatively fast; Leclerc had topped Free Practice 1 at the same event last year with a 1:33.350s.
Norris’ time, which headed proceedings, was a 1:31.839s, a 1.5s improvement in just over 12 months.
In reality, it was more than that, given Norris’ best time 12 months ago was a 1:33.522s, suggesting while the field has moved on 1.5s, the McLaren found 1.8s.
It must be noted however that the addition of a fourth DRS zone have moved those goal posts.
Another run from Leclerc saw the Monegasque inch his way ahead, going 0.076s faster than Norris to end the session fastest.
However it was again close, with little between Ferrari and McLaren while Verstappen in fourth suggested Red Bull Racing isn’t far away either.
Though that must be taken with some salt, as Tsunoda in fifth and Daniel Ricciardo seventh suggested there was more to come from the leading contenders.
Equally, it painted a promising start for RB with both cars in the top 10, even if they will almost certainly drop down the order as the weekend progresses.
Helpfully in its constructors’ championship with Haas, the American registered team was less impressive; Nico Hulkenberg last of the 20 drivers in the session, and the returning Kevin Magnussen only 17th.
