Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell have played down their Friday pace as they work to overcome bouncing issues.
Hamilton topped Free Practice 1, the first time he’s headed a session in 2022, with Russell fifth.
The pair were then fifth and third respectively in the second 60-minute session.
“Started off well; wasn’t as great in the second session,” Hamilton said of his Friday.
“Pretty much like every other weekend, I would say. The car is as it is and we’re bouncing around like crazy.
“But it doesn’t feel like we’re massively off here this weekend; we’re still probably a second down I would say, something like that.”
Conditions in Singapore remained warm across both sessions, with the track temperature above 30 degrees throughout Free Practice 2 despite the sun having set.
While the heat takes its toll on the drivers, Hamilton suggests it’s the bouncing that will have a greater impact.
“Probably a little bit dehydrated after that session, so feeling a little bit heavy and very hot – very hot,” Hamilton said.
“The biggest problem is not the physicality side of it, it’s literally just you’re bouncing so much that you just have a headache all the time. And this is a very, very bumpy track.”
This year’s cars are stiffer by design, to maximise the effect of the underfloor aerodynamics, but also sport tyres with smaller sidewalls than previous years.
Combined with the bumpy Marina Bay street circuit it conspires to create an difficult engineering puzzle for Mercedes to solve.
“There’s not really much we can do with the bouncing, it just is as it is,” Hamilton explained.
“But setup-wise, it’s definitely I think George was able to find a little more time.
“I think there’s definitely on my side more time in it, I just didn’t really get a good lap.
“The setup I have, [I] have a lot of locking.”
Russell is also battling the car on the bumps, suggesting Friday’s timesheets or not reflective of the true pecking order.
“There’s definitely a lot of work to do,” he said.
“Very, very bumpy out there. I think everybody’s struggling to a degree. We’ve always known there’s been a bit of a weak point with our car.
“The tyres are quite sensitive, I think it’s going to be one of those [where] if we can actually nail it, there’ll be a huge amount of time that we can find in qualifying and, as we know, it’s normally a qualifying race.”
Another hour of practice remains on Saturday evening ahead of qualifying.
Free Practice 3 is set to commence at 18:00 local time (20:00 AEST/03:00 BST/22:00 ET).
Discussion about this post