Morning After: A Shaky Start for the Scuderia

Heading into most races this season, it's been a hard ask to divine who has the advantage between Mercedes and Ferrari. In Singapore, where Ferrari have a tailor-made car and a tailor-made driver in Sebastian Vettel, that was meant to be easier – but you might not think so after Friday.

With only 0.011s separating Kimi Raikkonen from Lewis Hamilton at the top of the timing sheets, and Vettel making another costly error that limited Ferrari's collection of tyre data (at a track where they might really need it), it's safe to say that at the very least, the Scuderia have some serious work to do.

Indeed, as far as Friday sessions go, Mercedes should be doing backflips. Not only are they neck-and-neck on outright pace, but only a tenth lies between them on the all-important long runs, with Valtteri Bottas averaging a 1:46.531 over his nine-lap ultrasoft stint to Kimi Raikkonen's seven-lap 1:46.432. Maybe when Vettel finally shows up that changes, but at a place where bad things tend to happen for the boys in red – see, 2016 qualifying; 2017 race – it should be enough to make a Ferrari fan nervous.

+0.522. The gap between Red Bull (Max Verstappen) and P1 in FP2 after topping FP1. Seems highly unlikely they'll be in the mix this weekend.

€3200. Amount dished out in fines across four penalties for speeding in the pit lane, courtesy of Hulkenberg (twice), Raikkonen and Perez. Rumour is the money goes towards paying for Bernie Ecclestone's next haircut.

2. Number of offers "on the table" for Esteban Ocon in July, according to Toto Wolff in an interview with Sky Sports, down to zero currently, thanks to "politics, hidden agendas [and] lies".

Sad to see another young driver bite the proverbial dust on Friday, with Mercedes announcing they are parting ways with Pascal Wehrlein. A victim of both Mercedes' crowded driver stable and the lack of merit-based seats on the grid, there's now a very real possibility we never see him in F1 again.

Friday also brought us our first-look at F1's concept car for 2021. There's no denying it looks suitably futuristic, let's just hope it can follow in corners.

Spicy rumour of the day: Daniil Kvyat to return to Toro Rosso. Scott Speed must be furious.