FP2: Sainz leads another Ferrari one-two in second practice in Singapore

F1 Grand Prix, GP Singapore, Marina Bay Street Circuit

Ferrari continued their fine form from the opening practice at the Singapore Grand Prix as Carlos Sainz led a Scuderia one-two in Free Practice 2 on the narrow and tricky street course in Singapore. F1Technical's senior writer Balázs Szabó reports on the second one-hour session at the Singapore Grand Prix.

Following an impressive start in the opening practice, Ferrari continued to be the team to beat at the Marina Bay Street Circuit as Carlos Sainz edged out his team-mate Charles Leclerc to head a Ferrari one-two. The Spaniard set a 1m32.120s on Pirelli's soft tyres, leading Leclerc by a tight 0.018s.

After jumping out of the SF-23 cockpit, Sainz was asked if he was surprised by their strong performance. He replied: “Yeah, a little. But at the same time, you always need to arrive to Singapore very open-minded.

“You’ve seen in the past very weird performance swings at this track, because it’s a very particular track, and so far, it looks like it’s suiting our car well and it’s going well. We hit the ground running in FP1 and just fine-tuned the set-up a bit for FP2 to be a bit quicker."

Mercedes displayed a low-key performance in Monza two weeks ago, but the German-Anglo team looks arguably in much better shape than at the Italian Grand Prix. George Russell ended up third fastest, only two tenths of a second adrift of Sainz while his team-mate Lewis Hamilton set the fifth quickest lap.

After struggling for pace both in qualifying and in race trim in Monza, Fernando Alonso appeared to be able to fight for the top positions on the heavily modified Marina Bay Circuit. The Spaniard took fourth, setting eye-catching lap times on all tyre compounds and also performing a strong high-fuel run. His team-mate Lance Stroll set the 14th fastest lap, having racked up a total of 24 laps.

Championship leaders Red Bull endured a difficult first day with both Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez. The Mexican was the lead Red Bull in seventh, 0.692s down on Sainz’s top time, while Max Verstappen - who has never won in Singapore - was only eighth.

Commenting on his first day at Singapore, Verstappen said: “It was a little bit unexpected today. I was just struggling a lot with the balance of the car. We tried quite a few things in FP2, some worked, some didn’t.

“Never really got the car together so there’s quite a few things to figure out tonight. There’s just things that we don’t understand. That’s what we have to look into.”

Still replacing the injured Daniel Ricciardo, Liam Lawson was the lead AlphaTauri as he set the 12th fastest time while his team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was only 16th, two tenths of a second off the New Zealander.

While the Haas duo of Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg finished 9th and 11th fastest respectively and Alfa Romeo racer Valtteri Bottas slotted in between the Dane and the German drivers, Alpine continued to struggle for pace just as they did in Monza two weeks ago. Esteban Ocon was the lead driver of the Anglo-French outfit as he ended the session in P13 with Pierre Gasly languishing down in P18.

Williams endured a difficult first day at the Marina Bay Circuit. Their American driver Logan Sargeant finished in a distant P19, half a second adrift of his nearest rival. His team-mate Alex Albon was the slowest driver of all after a power unit issue limited his track time during the session.