F1 Singapore Grand Prix Free Practice One and Two

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The Singapore Grand Prix weekend got underway with Free Practice One and Two. Fernando Alonso unexpectedly topped the timesheet in Free Practice One, with Oscar Piastri heading up the leaderboard in Free Practice Two.

Singapore didn't disappoint with humid conditions, chaotic running and drama throughout both sessions.

​Alex Albon had to retire his car in FP1 due to an issue with his rear brakes. George Russell and Liam Lawson both had incidents with the walls in FP2, and many drivers came close or suffered lockups.

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Singapore Free Practice One

Top Ten Results
1) Fernando Alonso                1:31.116
2) Charles Leclerc                    +0.150
3) Max Verstappen                   +0.276
4) Lewis Hamilton                     +0.364
5) Oscar Piastri                         +0.365
6) Lando Norris                         +0.582
7) Isack Hadjar                          +0.639
8) Carlos Sainz                         +0.696
9) Yuki Tsunoda                        +0.744
10) Esteban Ocon                     +1.012

Fernando Alonso topped the timesheet in the first practice session of the Singapore Grand Prix weekend.

The session started at 5:30pm local time in cloudy conditions, following some afternoon showers that left typical Singaporean hot and humid conditions.

All 20 cars exited the pit lane as the green light switched on. This weekend, high temperatures have led the FIA to declare a heat hazard for the entire weekend, necessitating the installation of a special Driver Cooling System on the cars.

The drivers were mostly running on hard compound tyres, with the Aston Martins slotting on medium compound tyres.

Alex Albon caused some early drama when he returned to the pits with smoke emanating from the rear of his Williams car, prompting mechanics to deploy air blowers and fire extinguishers to manage the issue. This was later identified as a rear brake hardware problem, forcing him to sit out the remainder of the session.

The 19 remaining cars began setting lap times, with Lando Norris topping the timesheet with a lap time of 1:33.388. Over a quarter of the way through the session, Alonso held onto P1 with a lap time of 1m 32.595s on the medium compound tyres.

As drivers started pushing a little harder, Alpine's Pierre Gasly went too deep at Turn 14, and Lewis Hamilton had a close call with the wall on the exit of the same turn. 

At the halfway point, Alonso lowered the benchmark to a 1m 32.054s lap time, which Sainz overtook and then Leclerc with a 1m 31.763s.

The drivers then opted for soft tyre running with Leclerc going quickest, followed by Verstappen, Norris and Hadjar.

In the final moments of the session, Qualifying simulations started. Alonso followed up with a lap time of 1m 31.116s, making his way back to the top of the leaderboard.

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Singapore Free Practice Two

Top Ten Results
1) Oscar Piastri               1:30.714
2) Isack Hadjar                  +0.132
3) Max Verstappen            +0.143
4) Fernando Alonso           +0.163
5) Lando Norris                  +0.483
6) Lance Stroll                   +0.508
7) Esteban Ocon               +0.584
8) Carlos Sainz                 +0.585
9) Charles Leclerc            +0.752
10) Lewis Hamilton           +0.777

Oscar Piastri topped the timesheet during a disrupted FP2 session, in a session which had two red flags and a pit lane incident between Leclerc and Norris.

Nico Hulkenberg was the first out on track during the second qualifying session, which took place under the lights at 9pm local time.

Albon was back out on track after having to return to the pits after a rear brake issue in FP1. The rookie continued to explore the race track boundaries early in the session, with Kimi Antonelli having a moment and Gabriel Bortoleto running wide. Norris set an early benchmark lap time of 1m 31.716s.

George Russell brought out yellow flags after ending up with a broken front nose, after hitting the barrier at Turn 16, with a red flag being shown to recover the debris all over the track.

The session got back underway with half an hours running left, with many drivers getting back on track with soft compound tyres, with Hamilton and leclerc continuing on the medium tyres.

The action was brought to a halt after Liam Lawson hit the wall out of Turn 17, resulting in heavy damage to his car, which came to a stop at the pit entry, as his car was recovered.

As the session resumed Leclerc and Norris made contact in the pit lane, with Norris having to be wheeled back into the garage to have his front wing replaced after he hit the pit wall. Ferrari later received a fine of 10,000 euros for an unsafe release.

Both drivers headed out onto the track for the rest of the session, in a busy end to the session. The majority of the drivers were out on soft compound tyres with Piastri topping the timesheet by just 0.132s.

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Written by Anny Wooldridge