FORMULA 1
Lando Norris in final Singapore practice session! Official F1 Journal Free Practice 3 report21/9/2024  Credit: Clive Mason In the final free practice session at the Singapore Grand Prix, it was Lando Norris who was fastest on Saturday for the McLaren team. At the Marina Bay street circuit, Lando Norris set a delightful time of 1:29.646 on the C5 soft compound to end the session fastest and would end a practice session fastest for the second time across the weekend, after finishing top of Friday's free practice 2. Norris was quickest from Mercedes' George Russell, who despite having a car that had been struggling on Friday, finished second but was still almost half a second behind the sensational lap from Lando Norris. Norris' teammate Oscar Piastri completed the top three in a good session for McLaren. There would be six teams within the top 10 at the end of the session as both Williams cars looked strong once again. Championship leader Max Verstappen would finish fourth ahead of the two Ferrari cars, Charles Leclerc fifth and Carlos Sainz in sixth. Verstappen has a 59-point lead coming into this weekend, at a circuit where he has never won at before or led more than three racing laps. How Free Practice 3 unfolded for the 2024 Singapore Grand PrixSaturday would mean qualifying day on the streets of Singapore as the eyes of the motorsport world were clocked onto the Marina Bay Street Circuit for round 18 of the 2024 Championship. The action on Saturday would begin as the sun was beginning to set in Singapore with the final and third free practice session of the weekend, following on the back of two that took place on Friday. Lando Norris topped free practice 2 after Charles Leclerc topped free practice 1. These two drivers are the two who will be the closest challengers to Max Verstappen's championship lead, in the final seven rounds. At 17:30 local time the session would begin with the green light on at the end of the pit lane. However, it would be a fairly slow start to the session but not for a reason that many would have been expecting. The very well known Singapore Lizard took an adventure onto the track in the final few corners and was roaming about in the middle of the track, which made Fernando Alonso pit as it was in the middle part of the track. Track action would be red-flagged while the lizard was safely hurried off the circuit so the action could continue. Therefore, after the first 10 minutes the session would be back underway with drivers eager to get out and set some lap times. Mediums would be the choice for most of the drivers on their first runs apart from the Kick Sauber duo of Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas, who were running on the soft tyres. The early times would start to come in and it would be Oscar Piastri who would lead the times in the early stages, with a 1:32.957, which was good enough to sit relatively comfortable to the two Mercedes behind in George Russell and Lewis Hamilton. Red Bull had a difficult Friday and they would have been hoping to have got over their issues and Verstappen looked to have pace as he would go fastest overall with Sergio Perez slotting into second. Many drivers were attempting different runs throughout the session and because of this the order on the times was changing as halfway through the session, FP1's fastest driver Charles Leclerc would put himself to the top of the time sheets with a 1:31.525 on the medium C4 tyres. George Russell would run off down the escape road at turn 14 after the car was moving a bit under braking and made the sensible decision and go down the run off instead of attempting to make the corner, which would have been unlikely and would have probably ended him in the barriers. Soon enough it would be time for the rest of the drivers who had not run the soft compound of tyres yet in the session to do so. Therefore the remaining drivers who wanted to get some practice runs in before the day's later qualifying. The Mercedes of Russell would set an incredibly quick time of 1:30.125 which would not be beaten by the likes of Oscar Piastri, Lewis Hamilton or even Max Verstappen, who had the top spot earlier on in the session. It was some lap from Russell that would eventually be beaten by an absolute stunner of a lap from Lando Norris who would rocket up to the top of the times with a 1:29.646. A beautiful lap time from Norris, who after topping FP2 was looking incredibly strong around the Marina Bay street circuit and looked a favourite for pole position. Into the final few minutes runs would continue on the soft tyres but the top two would not be threatened at the top of the time sheets with their great lap times that they managed to put together which could be significant as they could be the two most confident heading into qualifying. It was Lando Norris quickest from George Russell in a British 1-2 with Norris' teammate Oscar Piastri completing the top three, as he ended the session in third. Max Verstappen was fourth for Red Bull ahead of the two Ferrari drivers, who were fifth and sixth -Charles Leclerc in fifth ahead of Carlos Sainz. Lewis Hamilton would end the session in seventh ahead of the two Williams drivers of Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto in eighth and ninth with Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso completing the top 10. At the end of free practice 3, it now means that practice is now completed and all the attention would turn to qualifying, which would set the grid for Sunday's Singapore Grand Prix, which could be a hugely important weekend in the session. Qualifying will begin at 21:00 Track Time, which is 14:00 UK Time. 2024 FIA Formula One World Championship: Round 18 - Singapore Grand Prix free practice 3 result
 Brandon Whiteside
Writer - F1 Journal
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