Official F1 Journal Saturday Round Up- Singapore

After a very calm but competitive Friday, the whole world woke up questioning if Redbull really had got it wrong in Singapore or if they would find their form for Qualifying? well we found out and what a shock it was. 
Lets run through the events of Saturdays running in Singapore. 

Practice 3- Dry Track Temp 38º Air temp 31º 

Before the session even started the Redbull team were busy in the garage making last minute changes to Verstappen's car and when the session tarted both of the Championship leading cars followed the Alfa Romeo of Valteri Bottas out on tot he track along side both Ferrari's who were looking to continue their form from Friday.
By the time we had 50 minutes left on the clock all the cars had made their way on to the track running either the Soft or Mediums with the exception of Oscar Piastri in his Mclaren who was running the Hard tyres doing data collection for the team. But  already Max was complaining about the gear changes on his car despite setting the fastest time of the session so far. Most of the teams settled into their long run data collection runs of the fastest tyre compounds.

Like Friday it was an uneventful session until Lawson bought out a momentary Yellow flag with 34 mins to go when he got greedy on the curbs and the car came around on him, but he kept it going,out of the wall and running continued. As did the Redbull unhappiness with Perez reporting over the radio the car was 'sliding on entry' and 'light under braking' and even of Max wasn't saying it his car looked to have the same issues when watched on track.  
​With 19 minutes to go the Qualifying Simulation runs began on the Soft tyre, Russell was the first man to complete his followed and beaten by Lando Norris, Albon despite kissing the wall put a decent time in and Hamilton came through to go 3rd on his flying lap. Piastri made his first Soft tyre run of his day and went 4th still 0.200 behind his team mate at the top of the times but closer than the time of  Max Verstappen who was 0.333 down on the updated Mclaren of Norris. 

Albon again on a hot lap had a near miss taking to the run off area and turn 14 but again escaping without any damage. It was then that the Ferrari's set their laps and  as expected they both went to the top of the times but it was easy to see that Sainz was on a level of his own setting faster times on every lap whereas team mate Leclerc had to abort his flying laps multiple times after making mistakes. 
It was at this point that Max made a radio message that had us all excited for the weekend to come'I can not drive with these updates'...'What the f#'; is this' he was not happy at all. As the session closed and we saw the teams top times George Russell put in a brilliant lap to go 2nd fastest, the best Verstappen could manage was 4th after the team adjusted the car and Lando Norris held on to finish FP3 in 3rd. 

Practice 3 Result

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

Qualifying 

Q1

Q1 Began ith almost 2/3 of the field queuing to get out of the pitlane and Sargeant lead the grid out for their first qualifying runs all if them running the Soft tyres throughout the 1st knock out round. 
Immediately the  Mclaren of Lando Norris was fast only trumped by the Mercedes of George Russel with the pair exchanging fastest time  but after everyones first timed runs it was the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc who topped the times with Perez and Verstappen only managing 3rd and 4th. 
With 8 minutes to go it became clear the track eveolution was mega and it seemed no matter the car or driver their next lap would improve them into the top 10 with Sargeant, Bottas and Ocon all setting decent times, 1 minute to go and the whole grid was on track everyone setting faster and faster times, Tsuonda went top, followed by Hulkenburg on Purple sectors and Magnussen setting a time good enough for 2nd, Lawson went up to 4th and Verstappen and Perez both found themselves looking at the drop zone without a mega lap, which they were not on due to traffic when Lance Stroll had a HUGE v=crash at the final corner while pushing his Aston Martin to hard to get that elusive 'Magic lap' this brought out a Red Flag and depite showing real speed Oscar Piastri just metres from the line on a time that would have got him out of the knock out zone didnt finish his lap before the Red flag was called and found himself out in Q1 joined but both Alfa Romeos and Sargeant and Stroll. We are glad Lance is ok but his crash saved Redbull from the embarressment of losing both cars in Q1.  

Knocked out Q1

16 BOT    17 PIA
18 SAR    19 ZHO
20 ALB

Q2

With a short delay while the track was made ready after Stroll's massive crash at turn 19 Q2 got going both Redbull's lead the pack out with the exception of Russell and Hamilton who waitied in the pits till 10 minutes were left on the clock, everyone again running the soft tyres. 

​Max set the fastest time but just to illustrate the shocking pace of the Redbull this weekend it was immediately beaten by the HAAS of Kevin Magnussen, then Norris who then went top, to be beaten by a flying Carlos Sainz, his Ferrari team mate could only manage 3rd on his first flying run, when Singapore veteran Alonso went fastest of all until the Mercedes of Russell set a killer lap to take the top spot after everyone's first runs. Sainz held 2nd, Norris 3rd and Verstapena dn Perez found them selves at risk down in 10th and 11th.

3 minutes left on the clock and its everyone last chance to get through to the coveted top 10. Sainz beat the time of Russell, Alonso managed 3rd, but the Redbulls were in alot of traffic and struggling, Perez ultimately spun on his last lap and couldn't set a fast enough lap in the time left and Max was on the cut off line in 10th when after a brilliant lap from Alpha Tauri man Liam Lawson(who had never ever raced at Singapore before) set a cracking lap to knock the reining world champion out of Qualifying!!!!
​

Knocked out Q2

11 VER    12 GAS
13 PER    14 ALB
​15 TSU

Q3

Q3 started without both Redbul's for the first time in recent memory and Lando Norris getting through marked the Mclaren mans 10th consecutive Q3 appearance despite their tough start to the season and both HAAS cars had made it to Q3 for the first time this year. 
Sainz, Leclerc and Norris were straight on the pace   and topped the times in that order with Russell and Hamilton setting times only good enough for 4th and 5th on their fist runs.
The track stayed busy till the end with purple sector times coming from all 10 cars at different points, Sainz extended his lead by setting a faster time, Russell went faster on his 2nd run mmanaging 2nd fastest, Leclerc just didnt seem to have the confidence of team mate Carlos Sainz and only managed a time good enough for 3rd, fend off the rapid Mclaren of  Lando Norris who completed the 2nd row for the Grand Prix, Hamilton finished in 5th and lines up next to Kevin Magnussen who set a brilliant last lap of Qualifying and was extremely happy with his 6th place beating Alonso in 7th, Ocon in 8th, his HAAS team mate in 9th and Lawson who did a brilliant jon to finish in the top 10 the first time of qualifying here. 

The track stayed busy till the end with purple sector times coming from all 10 cars at different points, Sainz extended his lead by setting a faster time, Russell went faster on his 2nd run managing 2nd fastest, Leclerc just didn't seem to have the confidence of team mate Carlos Sainz and only managed a time good enough for 3rd, fending off the rapid Mclaren of  Lando Norris who completed the 2nd row for the Grand Prix, Hamilton finished in 5th and lines up next to Kevin Magnussen who set a brilliant last lap of Qualifying and was extremely happy with his 6th place beating Alonso in 7th, Ocon in 8th, his HAAS team mate in 9th and Lawson who did a brilliant jon to finish in the top 10 the first time of qualifying here. 

Qualifying Results 

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

After the relative calm of Friday Practice and P3, Qualifying was brilliant, with constantly changing top times and no real idea who would get pole. Sainz takes his 2nd Pole in a row and with Verstappen down in 11th (after escaping penalty free despite being investigated for 3 separate impeding incidents) the win is really open to any of the top 5.
Very exciting stuff, lets hope the race is just as exciting and we see and new winner for 2023

Joanna Blackmore 
​Writer @ f1 Journal