Singapore, Friday: Russell leads practice, Verstappen on pole for the Sprint
A Sprint weekend allows only one practice session before things get serious. The fastest driver of the afternoon is not the one who will start in front on Saturday.
Friday in Singapore, on a Sprint weekend, has only first practice and Sprint qualifying. In the afternoon practice the fastest driver is George Russell: 1:32.274, on the Soft.
Behind Russell are Charles Leclerc at 198 thousandths and Lando Norris at 273 thousandths, all on the same compound. Then come Lewis Hamilton at 499 thousandths and Oscar Piastri at 564 thousandths, still on the Soft. Max Verstappen is further back, at 732 thousandths, but he runs the Medium. Practice does not put drivers on the same tyres, and that gap is not a comparison.
In the evening Sprint qualifying stops almost immediately for a red flag, then restarts. In the end pole goes to Verstappen. Russell finishes second, Leclerc finishes third, ahead of the McLarens of Piastri and Norris and of Hamilton. Kimi Antonelli finishes seventh.
Verstappen ends up under investigation, after the session, for a yellow flag. On Saturday he still starts from pole.
Practice is the only chance to test race pace before the Sprint, and here pace is hard to read. Fuel quantities and programmes remain unknown, and compounds change from driver to driver. Mercedes’ internal comparison, with its cars split between specifications, is covered in the weekend preview.