Ricciardo close to Mercedes at Singapore
Formula One's notorious night race weekend kicked off today at Singapore, where Nico Rosberg proved fastest in the first practice session, ahead of team mate Lewis Hamilton.
Contrary to the opening sessions at the Italian Grand Prix just two weeks ago, the competition looks set to be much stiffer around the twisty street circuit at Marina Bay. Proof is Daniel Ricciardo who was immediately within a tenth of Hamilton's best while Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen were reasonably close in 4th and 5th.
Debuting for Marussia this weekend is Alexander Rossi. He ran well and nearly matched team mate Stevens from the moment the session got started. He did however make life difficult for his engineers as he crashed his car towards the very end of the 90 minute session, causing extensive suspension damage on the right hand side of his MR03B car.
First practice however is reasonably irrelevant in terms of performance, given that all other sessions during the weekend are run at dusk or in the evening, meaning much lower track temperatures, resulting in very different behaviour from the tyres.
Results
| Pos. | .No. | .Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:47.995 | - | 27 |
| 2 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:48.314 | +0.319s | 24 |
| 3 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull Racing | 1:48.331 | +0.336s | 21 |
| 4 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1:48.494 | +0.499s | 23 |
| 5 | 7 | Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari | 1:48.785 | +0.790s | 20 |
| 6 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 1:49.380 | +1.385s | 19 |
| 7 | 33 | Max Verstappen | Toro Rosso | 1:49.466 | +1.471s | 17 |
| 8 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | 1:49.854 | +1.859s | 21 |
| 9 | 55 | Carlos Sainz | Toro Rosso | 1:50.019 | +2.024s | 28 |
| 10 | 13 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus | 1:50.068 | +2.073s | 21 |
| 11 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Mclaren | 1:50.123 | +2.128s | 21 |
| 12 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 1:50.125 | +2.130s | 23 |
| 13 | 12 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber | 1:50.158 | +2.163s | 18 |
| 14 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | 1:50.341 | +2.346s | 23 |
| 15 | 22 | Jenson Button | Mclaren | 1:50.455 | +2.460s | 21 |
| 16 | 9 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 1:50.883 | +2.888s | 21 |
| 17 | 19 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 1:51.035 | +3.040s | 18 |
| 18 | 26 | Daniil Kvyat | Red Bull Racing | 1:51.188 | +3.193s | 8 |
| 19 | 28 | Will Stevens | Marussia | 1:53.903 | +5.908s | 20 |
| 20 | 53 | Alexander Rossi | Marussia | 1:53.918 | +5.923s | 18 |
