Official F1 Journal Friday Round Up- Singapore

Drivers train all year for this race, it is a truly unique physical and metal challenge unlike any other track on the calendar!! And that challenge starts on Friday with the first 2 out of 3 practice sessions. The first to get comfortable with the track and they new layout in the day light and the 2nd the closest to Race and Qualifying conditions of the 3 practice hours so a lot of work needs to be done in that hour to get the best out of your Saturday and Sunday.
Also worth remembering is Max Verstappen has never won here and has only lead 3 laps of Singapore compared to his team mate Sergio Perez who won the race in 2022.

Practice 1- Dry
​42º Track temp 32º Air temp

 FP1 in Singapore is  different to most, usually first practice is run in similar conditions to the Qualifying and race sessions and is a good data collecting opportunity, but not here, because the session is run in the daylight on a totally green track this session becomes more of an hour for the drivers to get comfortable in the cars and on the track. With the changes to the track for 2023( see F1 Journal Singapore Track Guide for more details) and  3 drivers on the grid who had never raced here, it is a much needed dial in.  
When the green light lit at the end of the pitlane all the cars joined the track and started setting times on either the Hard or Medium tyres. Norris who is running an updates car this weekend set the fastest time on the Medium tyres in his Mclaren, Max Verstappen was not happy with his downshifts on his first run and already with the track changes and car improvements the field was lapping  6 seconds faster than the 2022 FP1 fastest time and as running continued at would extend to over 10 seconds faster than last years P1 fastest time

With 32 minutes to go Pierre Gasly was the first to put the soft tyres on but his first flying run  was only good enough for 2nd to the updated Mclaren on the Medium tyre. Max Vestappen was down in 9th still not happy with the car, Russel had put his Mercedes in 3rd with Leclerc behind him in 4th and their team mates Hamilton and Sainz occupying 7th and 8th but as all of the above were changing for the soft tyres when yellow flags were being waved in sector 2 as a large Lizard had made its way onto the track seemingly unbothered by the formula 1 cars driving past it, it took its sweet time to cross the track and allow running to continue.

With 22 minutes to go and soft tyres on almost all the cars, the times started to really tumble, with Sainz going top only to be beaten by Norris by almost half a second. Leclerc then set the fastest time with Championship leader Max Verstappen only managing 2nd only to be beaten to 2nd by Carlos Sainz when Lizard number 2 decided to make an on track appearance at turn 9. Again the lizard removed its self from the track, almost totally unfazed by the mighty machines surrounding it so much so with only 2 minutes on the clock it seemed another of the lizard family wanted to join the fun and a 3rd yellow flag was waved for the reptilian wanna be racer. The close of the session was dominated by long run data collection runs for all the teams and ended with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc top, his team mate Sainz 2nd and Verstappen 3rd. 

Practice 1 Result

1 LEC    2 SAI
3 VER    4 NOR
5 HAM   6 RUS
7 PER    8 ALO
9 TSU    10 OCO
11 STR   12 GAS
13 ALB   14 BOT
15 MAG  16 LAW
17 HUL   18 ZHO
​19 PIA     20 SAR

Practice 2- Dry
37º Track temp 30º Air temp 

Practice 2 is the only practice session run in the dark and so is a very busy one for all the teams while they try and gather as much data for both Qualifying and the Race as possible in the 1 hour practice session. 
As soon as the clock started ticking down all the cars made their way to the track except Lance Stroll who shortly followed the rest of the grid. Only Norris, Ocon, Bottas Gasly and Albon chose to start P2 on the hard tyres, everyone else chose the Medium for their first runs. Sainz, Alonso and Leclerc set the fastest 3 times while Max Verstappen found himself getting held up by traffic in sector 3 and Lance Stroll got a little bit to close to the barriers giving it a little tap trying to find the limit in his Aston Martin. 
40 Minutes on the clock and Albon started to report a drop in power in his Williams and was forced to pit with a Power Unit issue. 

Mid way through the hour practice session and the Soft tyres were going on and we started to see some Qualifying simulation laps from almost all the drivers, Magnussen tapped the wall and Sargeant had a scary moment across the curbs in his Williams but luckily caught the car before finding a wall. Verstappen managed to take his Redbull from 16th to 6th but was no match for the 2 Ferrari's who seem to be very happy with the car here at Singapore with Sainz almost half a second clear of Hamilton in 3rd. Alonso, Bottas and Lawson( who is racing at Singapore for the first time this weekend) also set very competitive laps to be in the mix of the top 10.

The rest of the session was like P1 mainly long run data collection runs for all although not everyone was happy with their car, it seemed that both sides of the Redbull garage were not happy with the car as Perez aired his struggles with losing the rear end into every braking zone over the radio.
The session ended with a clean sheet of no crashes for this SIngapore Friday and the Ferrari's topped the times again but this time with Carlos Sainz in the top spot follow by team mate Leclerc and George Russel 3rd in his Mercedes.
Verstappen ended the day 8th beaten by the sister Redbull of Perez who finished 7th.   

Practice 2 Result

1 SAI     2 LEC
3 RUS   4 ALO
5 HAM   6 NOR
7 PER    8 VER
9 MAG   10 BOT
11 HUL   12 LAW
13 OCO   14 STR
15 PIA     16 TSU
17 ZHO    18 GAS
​19 SAR     20 ALB 

Joanna Blackmore 
​Writer @ F1 Journal.co.uk