Practice report

Formula 1 Singapore GP

Singapore GP: Leclerc outpaces Hamilton in FP3

Charles Leclerc headed Lewis Hamilton in final practice for Formula 1's Singapore Grand Prix, as Red Bull failed to show its true pace ahead of Saturday night’s qualifying session.

Scott Mitchell

Edited: Sep 21, 2019, 11:09 AM

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Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF90

Ferrari was not expected to challenge for honours in Singapore and its lead car was 0.8s off the pace in Friday practice, but Leclerc improved his own fastest time on the opening day by almost two seconds in FP3.

A 1m38.192s launched the Belgian and Italian Grands Prix winner to top spot, two tenths clear of Mercedes driver Hamilton.

Leclerc spent most of FP3 on top, setting the pace in the early runs as Mercedes’ drivers used medium tyres instead of softs.

A red flag around the halfway mark, caused by Sergio Perez clouting the wall exiting the final chicane with his right rear and leaving debris on the track, interrupted the next round of qualifying simulations.

After that stoppage, Valtteri Bottas briefly went fastest for Mercedes on a 1m39.166s, but as that was slower than the fastest time from Friday it was never likely to remain the benchmark.

Leclerc swiftly reclaimed top spot with his low-1m38s, a time only Hamilton came close to matching – after the championship leader recovered from a spin at Turn 3.

Sebastian Vettel, who led Ferrari’s effort on Friday, was third-fastest and 0.619s slower than Leclerc.

Bottas improved on his brief table-topping lap to end up fourth on a 1m38.885s, just behind Vettel.

Alex Albon was surprisingly Red Bull’s best-placed driver in fifth, after Max Verstappen failed to improve late on.

Verstappen was third quickest, 0.2s slower than Bottas, on the penultimate runs but a messy lap and then traffic prevented him from improving. That allowed Albon to nip in ahead with a 1m39.258s.

Behind the big three teams, McLaren duo Carlos Sainz Jr and Lando Norris led the midfield runners.

Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg and Daniel Ricciardo completed the two-by-two formation behind the top four.

Perez’s smack against the wall was the only contact-related incident of note in the session.

Daniil Kvyat failed to set a time after aborting a lap early on with smoke starting to appear from the back of his Honda-powered Toro Rosso.

Kvyat suffered an oil leak and will switch to a different engine for qualifying, but will not incur a grid penalty as it is a previously-used power unit.

Session results

Cla # Driver Chassis Laps Time Gap 1 16 Monaco Charles Leclerc
Ferrari 15 1'38.192 2 44 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes 15 1'38.399 0.207 3 5 Germany Sebastian Vettel
Ferrari 13 1'38.811 0.619 4 77 Finland Valtteri Bottas
Mercedes 16 1'38.885 0.693 5 23 Thailand Alex Albon
Red Bull 14 1'39.258 1.066 6 33 Netherlands Max Verstappen
Red Bull 9 1'39.366 1.174 7 55 Spain Carlos Sainz Jr.
McLaren 14 1'39.507 1.315 8 4 United Kingdom Lando Norris
McLaren 13 1'39.709 1.517 9 27 Germany Nico Hulkenberg
Renault 15 1'40.118 1.926 10 3 Australia Daniel Ricciardo
Renault 12 1'40.153 1.961 11 18 Canada Lance Stroll
Racing Point 11 1'40.209 2.017 12 10 France Pierre Gasly
Toro Rosso 15 1'40.339 2.147 13 7 Finland Kimi Raikkonen
Alfa Romeo 16 1'40.953 2.761 14 11 Mexico Sergio Perez
Racing Point 4 1'40.985 2.793 15 63 United Kingdom George Russell
Williams 13 1'41.156 2.964 16 99 Italy Antonio Giovinazzi
Alfa Romeo 14 1'41.169 2.977 17 20 Denmark Kevin Magnussen
Haas 12 1'41.494 3.302 18 8 France Romain Grosjean
Haas 12 1'41.542 3.350 19 88 Poland Robert Kubica
Williams 13 1'41.954 3.762 20 26 Russian Federation Daniil Kvyat
Toro Rosso 3 View full results

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