Red Bul drivers hogged the top of the timing screens at the end of the first free practice session of the Singapore Grand Prix weekend, with Daniel Ricciardo setting the pace around the Marina Bay Circuit during the late afternoon session.
Ricciardo’s best lap time of 1:39.711 was a couple of tenths up on his Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen, notably three seconds faster than last year in the same session.
Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel was third fastest, 0.286 of a second down on his former teammate and a half second up on current teammate Kimi Raikkonen in fourth.
Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg was fifth fastest albeit 1.4 seconds shy of the top time, with teammate Carlos Sainz in seventh.
Splitting the yellow cars on the timing screens was the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton, sixth fastest and 1.5 seconds off the benchmark time, teammate Valtteri Bottas was eighth.
Mercedes clearly kept their powder dry as they ran to their own programme and refrained from using the Pirelli hyper tyre which is worth a second or so per lap.
Soon to be Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc was again fast in the Sauber, ninth fastest before he made a mistake and clipped the wall which ripped the right front wheel.
The rookie was forced to park the damaged car shortly before the session ended, he was four tenths faster than teammate Marcus Ericsson in the sister car, in 11th.
Romain Grosjean rounded out the ten in the Haas.
It was a dismal afternoon for McLaren with Fernando Alonso reporting a power problem on his way to the 14th best time. In the garage next to him it was worse for teammate Stoffel Vandoorne who was slowest of all, his session ending with a hydraulic problem.
