FP3: Norris and Russell dominate final practice while Ferrari struggle for pace
McLaren’s Lando Norris dominated the third and final practice at the Singapore Grand Prix while Ferrari seemingly lost their way after a strong showing on Friday. F1Technical’s lead journalist Balazs Szabo reports on Free Practice 3.
Charles Leclerc set the pace in the opening practice on Friday, and although the Monegasque looked quick in the second one-hour running, his best lap time was eclipsed by McLaren's Lando Norris. The pecking order has completely changed for Saturday, with the Scuderia losing its fine form from Friday.
The final one-hour session was red flagged for a short period of time as a lizard had made an appearance out on track, and marshals tried to get the reptile to safety.
Norris set the benchmark with an eye-catching 1m29.646s, beating Mercedes driver George Russell by almost half a second. His McLaren stable-mate Oscar Piastri ended up third on the leaderboard, but he was eight tenths of a second adrift of Norris.
Reigning champion Max Verstappen complained about the behaviour of his car during Friday's practice sessions, but he reported improvement after his first hot laps. The Dutch driver looked quick on the mediums, but he was unable to challenge Norris for the top spot, ending the one-hour session in fourth place.
Ferrari looked mighty quick on Friday, and they managed to carry that form over to Saturday on the medium compound. However, both drivers struggled for grip on the softs, with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz taking only fifth and sixth respectively.
Lewis Hamilton had a similar session to the Ferrari drivers, feeling fairly comfortable on the yellow-banded tyres, but struggling for general grip on the red-walled compound. The four-time Singapore GP winner took seventh, with the Williams duo of Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto ending up eighth and ninth respectively.
Aston Martin's two-time F1 world champion Fernando Alonso rounded out the top ten to head a very closely-matched midfield battle.
Yuki Tsunoda put his RB into P11, leading from the Haas duo of Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen. Alpine's Pierre Gasly took P14, beating Red Bull’s Sergio Perez.
Esteban Ocon was P16 in the Alpine, with Daniel Ricciardo behind in P17. Lance Stroll took P18 for Aston Martin, with Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu having completed the order.
