Singapore GP Friday: Team & Driver reports from Marina Bay

At the end of FP1, Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc topped the timing screens ahead of McLaren's Lando Norris suggesting the sport's two most successful teams top the pecking order as Mercedes and Red Bull chase if today's practice sessions are anything to go by.

In FP2, the pair swapped with Norris ending the day fastest of all, Leclerc P2 and Yuki Tsunoda surprising all in his VCARB, popping up P3 ahead of Baku winner Oscar Piastri in P4. On a day in which Max Verstappen and Red Bull struggled.

This is what drivers and teams had to say in Friday when the floodlights dimmed at Marina Bay:

Team Report: Scuderia Ferrari HP enjoyed a productive Friday in the heat and humidity of the Marina Bay Street Circuit, which hosted the first two hours of free practice for the Singapore Grand Prix, the 18th round of the Formula 1 World Championship. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were always front runners, first and third in the first session and second and third in the evening one, held under floodlights. The SF-24 performed well with both drivers who evaluated all three Pirelli compounds, as they worked in both qualifying and race trim.

P2. Charles Leclerc: "The car felt good, but there’s still some work ahead of us to get it to feel exactly as I want it to. It was a good starting point, now we have to find the right balance and put it all together in qualifying tomorrow. The weather forecast for the rest of the weekend is changeable, so we will have to adapt very quickly. I would be surprised to see the same gap behind us again tomorrow, it will be interesting to see if the pecking order will change."

P3. Carlos Sainz: "It’s been a challenging start to the weekend to be honest. Already in FP1 I could feel there was something not quite right with the brakes and we seemed to carry that into FP2, so I struggled to get the most out of the two sessions. Other than that, the car seems to be in a good window. I’m confident that we can figure out what happened today and make a big step."

P4. Yuki Tsunoda: “It was a positive day and overall, I’m feeling good. Obviously, it’s just free practice and I’m sure some of our competitors will pick up the pace from tomorrow onwards, but at the same time, there’s more to come on our side with some improvements, so we need to stay sharp. I’m definitely looking forward to qualifying more than usual, where we’ll have the chance to put it all together.”

P6, Daniel Ricciardo: “It was a really good day for the whole Team. Yuki and I finished in the top seven in both sessions. It was really close, I think four of us finished within two hundredths of a second. We’re happy with the car. There’s always some fine tuning to do, but it was nice to see ourselves in good points scoring positions today. We have a decent package here and look competitive. I had a lot of grip today, and the circuit was really fun to drive. Hopefully our pace remains tomorrow going into qualifying.”

Alan Permane, Racing Director: "It was a sensible Friday for us. Firstly, both cars came home in one piece at the end of each session, which is always a good start on a track like this. Both drivers were reasonably happy with their cars from the very start of the first session. We made a few minor changes prior to FP2 to tweak the balance and again, the drivers were pretty satisfied. We still have a bit of work to do on single lap pace, but we know which direction to go in and we will make some final adjustments tomorrow before the final hour of practice to ensure the cars are in the best possible shape for Saturday night’s qualifying."

P7. George Russell: "That was quite a challenging Friday for us. We didn't have the pace of the frontrunners today and we need to work hard overnight to understand why. The car wasn't feeling as well connected as it did here last year, or in recent races. We need to get to the bottom of that if we are to have a weekend where we can challenge at the front. I am sure we will find some answers though once we go through all the data this evening. There were a lot of surprises out there when you looked at the timing screens. Williams and VCARB seemed to be particularly quick compared to recent races, whilst the Red Bulls looked to be struggling a little. The McLarens and the Ferraris looked to have a comfortable advantage over everyone else meanwhile and we've clearly got work on our hands to be in with a chance of racing them this weekend."

P11. Lewis Hamilton: "It was a very challenging day for us. I didn't feel particularly connected with the car throughout. We tried many different things on the set-up to try and find improvements but couldn't find any major breakthrough. We were working hard as a team to make gains and get closer to the pace at the front, but we weren't able to do so by the end of FP2. It was challenging to know exactly where we should put the car in terms of set-up and that is something we will be working hard on overnight. We need to find some additional speed otherwise we will be looking at a difficult Saturday tomorrow.

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director: "That was one of the trickier Friday's of the year so far. We experimented with different set-ups across the cars in FP1, aiming to try and counter some of the challenges we'd faced particularly on our Medium tyre stint last weekend in Baku. Unfortunately, the track conditions didn't give us a brilliant read on this, so we converged more closely for FP2. Neither driver was particularly happy with the balance throughout the session, although we made some progress on our long run. Whilst that second hour of running was more encouraging, we've still got a good chunk of work to do overnight. McLaren and Ferrari, in particular Norris and Leclerc, looked to be a step ahead of the rest of the field. We will have to find some big improvements to be in the fight with them tomorrow. We've also got one eye on some of the teams behind us. We will need to find gains overnight if we are to have a smoother run through qualifying and that is what we are focused on doing."

P9. Alex Albon: "To be honest, the car doesn’t feel amazing, but I think that’s good because it means we have more lap time to find. We were good on the harder compound tyres but struggled a bit on the Softs, so we just need to figure it out. The pace is good, and the car feels way better than last year, so that’s a positive. With the upgrades, it’s hard to fully delve into them so far in these sessions, however, we’ll look at the data tonight and come back stronger tomorrow."

P16. Franco Colapinto: "Overall, today has been a good learning session to get used to the track and the heat. I feel positive after both sessions. In FP2, I couldn’t put the lap together on the Softs as I had a lot of oversteer. It’s clear that out here, the Soft is a one lap tyre, so there wasn’t much more I could gain on the second lap. I think I’m looking quite strong when I put the lap together, so let’s see where we end up tomorrow in Qualifying."

Sven Smeets, Sporting Director: "Alex started today with the updated package for practice, using FP1 to get up to speed with the different way it drives, however, after FP2, he was still not completely happy with the balance of the car. Franco used FP1 to learn the track but was quite quickly on the pace, despite also struggling with the balance of the car. The positive is that the car feels much better than last year, which is promising. We’ll go through all the data tonight as we know there is more performance to find for tomorrow."

P17. Esteban Ocon: “The pace looked relatively promising this morning in Free Practice 1 but seemed to drop off for us in Free Practice 2 even though the car felt similar between the two sessions. We need to debrief as a team and understand why that is and aim to come back stronger tomorrow. We were expecting a little more in terms of pace from the car but that was not the case today. We will give it our best to improve the car and hopefully be up in the mix in Qualifying.”

P18. Pierre Gasly: “It’s been a tough Friday Practice for us in Singapore. We have not been competitive relative to our expectations, so we have a lot of work to do in order to understand the areas where we are lacking. We have another Practice before Qualifying where hopefully we can make the necessary changes to improve things. We need to be faster and the aim is to really find these much-needed improvements because today has not been a great day.”

Team Report: "FP1, held late afternoon, saw MoneyGram Haas F1 Team drivers Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg get their first taste of the 4.940-kilometer (3.069-mile), 19-turn street circuit. Both drivers sampled the Pirelli P Zero White hard tire followed by the Red soft compound. Under the night sky and in the full glare of the myriad of lights lining the track, FP2 ran under conditions representative of Saturday’s qualifying and Sunday’s night race. Magnussen and Hulkenberg commenced their second practice plan with a stint on the Yellow medium tire before qualifying sims on the soft rubber. Hulkenberg cracked P10 while Magnussen landed P13."

P10. Nico Hulkenberg: “It didn’t look great this morning, but I didn’t get a proper run on the softs so this afternoon showed a bit more of a representative picture, but again it’s very fine margins and it’s very tight in the midfield. I felt okay in the evening with the cooler track temperature, felt the car beneath me a bit more and that’s a good foundation to go from. It will come down to execution and how clean can you produce the laps to squeeze everything out. I think if we do a perfect job, Q3 could be possible.”

P13. Kevin Magnussen: “It was a bit of a mixed day, but on the other hand, it was pretty straightforward. It looked better in FP2 than in FP1, so that’s a good thing. The conditions in FP1 were daylight, a hot track, and FP2 was more representative of qualifying and the race. Our long runs went okay as well, so we’ll see. It’s very tight, it’s two or three tenths and we’re around P6, so you have to squeeze everything out of it. It’s also hard to take too much risk because it’s so close it can also cost you a lot, we have to treat it like any other weekend and get it right.”

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal: “In FP1 we struggled a bit with track conditions, but FP2 was a lot better so both drivers are happier with the car. We still need to fine-tune some of the set-up to get the full performance out of the car for this circuit. Kevin had a pretty decent long run on the soft tire, so we learned a great deal for Sunday which is really good information. Overnight, we’ll be looking at the specific corners we’re losing lap time in and improve the car a bit more so that Nico and Kevin can take more confidence into FP3 and qualifying.”

Team Report: Stake F1 Team KICK Sauber took to the streets of Singapore for the first two practice sessions in Marina Bay. FP1 saw Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu contend with a very dusty track, but the real test came in FP2, under the night-time floodlights, in conditions that resemble what awaits the team in tomorrow’s qualifying.

P20. Valtteri Bottas: "It was a challenging practice day on track today with a lack of overall car performance. We struggled to find the right balance, as we lacked the consistency we were looking for. We made some changes between the two sessions, but I feel we made a step backwards: we'll work hard overnight get back on track, improve and make the car more stable and drivable, so we can find that extra performance for FP3 and take a step forward for qualifying."

P19: Zhou Guanyu: "It’s good to be back racing in Singapore, a place with such great energy. I think we had two solid and relatively smooth sessions in the car today. On paper, we were not expecting a significant improvement over Baku, but I felt I was in a better window when it came to car balance compared to the last few events. The times are really close, and if we can continue to improve tomorrow and find a little more laptime, especially on our first lap on new tyres, we can push for the edge of Q2. It's tricky out there, though – every session in Singapore brings different track conditions and you constantly need to adapt. Getting the car dialled in here is crucial, because once you're confident and get into the rhythm, it really makes a difference to the lap times."

Report in progress...