F1 – Norris powers ahead in final practice at Marina Bay Street Circuit
McLaren’s Lando Norris set the pace in the final practice session ahead of the qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix, beating Mercedes George Russell by almost half a second, with Oscar Piastri taking third place in the other McLaren.
Despite the unrepresentative conditions of the late afternoon, Aston Martin sent both its drivers out on track after three minutes. However, a few minutes later their running was halted by the presence on track of an iguana, a protected species in Singapore.
After a delay of four minutes the session resumed and the action got properly underway as a steady stream of cars exited the pit lane, with Medium tyres the choice for almost all drivers.
Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen, a lowly 15th at the end of Friday’s running, quickly jumped to the top of the timesheet with a lap of 1:32.044. McLaren’s Lando Norris slotted into P2, 0.252 off the Dutchman but then Sergio Pérez moved past the Briton with a time of 1:32.180 in the much improved RB20.
Verstappen was enjoying the benefits, too, and with his next lap he lowered the benchmark to 1:31.630, three tenths of a second clear of Carlos Sainz who rose to P2 ahead of Norris.
Moments later Pierre Gasly had a nervous moment when he came across a slow Mercedes and the Alpine driver did well to keep his car clear of the barriers as he avoided the slower car. There was no escaping the walls for Alex Albon, however. The Williams driver made a mistake in Turn 15 and clipped the wall, resulting in a puncture that forced him back to the pit lane.
Charles Leclerc then jumped to the top of the timesheet setting a time of 1:31.525 to clear Verstappen by 0.105s and the Monegasque driver was joined at the top by team-mate Sainz who posted a lap of 1:31.623, 0.007s ahead of the Red Bull.
As the halfway mark arrived, Williams’ Franco Colapinto was the first to bolt on Softs for a quali sim and the Argentine rookie put his FW46 into seventh place with a lap of 1:31.819.
Mercedes’ George Russell and Lewis Hamilton were next out on the red-banded rubber. Russell jumped to P1 with a lap of 1:30.125, a sizeable 1.4s ahead of Leclerc. Hamilton, meanwhile took third place behind Oscar Piastri, who also now had Softs onboard.
With a little under 20 minutes left in the session, Verstappen emerged on Soft tyres and his first flying run of 1:30.540 put him third. Norris was next to make an attempt and the McLaren driver found time all across the lap to go purple in all three sectors and post a time of 1:29.646, 0.479s clear of Russell.
With 12 minutes remaining the Ferrari drivers took the track on Soft tyres, but Sainz was only able to manage fifth place, behind Verstappen. Leclerc, meanwhile, put in two warm-up laps, but the extra tour provided little benefit. He only managed a lap 1:30.559, 0.9s off Norris and was left complaining that he “had no grip at all”.
Leclerc returned to the pit lane for adjustments but a final tour failed to yield an improvement and Norris comfortably kept hold of top spot ahead of Russell with Piastri in third ahead of Verstappen and the two Ferrari cars.
Seventh place in the session went to Hamilton who finished a tenth of second ahead of Albon and Williams team-mate Franco Colapinto and the top 10 order was completed by Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso. Further back, Sergio Pérez in the second Red Bull spent the bulk of the session on Medium tyres and though he bolted on Soft tyres in the final 10 minutes of the session, the Mexican was only able to climb from P19 to 15th at the flag.
2024 FIA Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix – Free Practice 3
1 Lando Norris McLaren/Mercedes 1:29.646 16 198.380
2 George Russell Mercedes 1:30.125 0.479 19 197.325
3 Oscar Piastri McLaren/Mercedes 1:30.431 0.785 16 196.658
4 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1:30.540 0.894 16 196.421
5 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:30.559 0.913 20 196.380
6 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:30.807 1.161 20 195.843
7 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:30.864 1.218 19 195.721
8 Alexander Albon Williams/Mercedes 1:30.949 1.303 13 195.538
9 Franco Colapinto Williams/Mercedes 1:30.989 1.343 15 195.452
10 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:31.082 1.436 23 195.252
11 Yuki Tsunoda RB/Honda RBPT 1:31.114 1.468 16 195.184
12 Nico Hülkenberg Haas/Ferrari 1:31.187 1.541 14 195.027
13 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 1:31.265 1.619 14 194.861
14 Pierre Gasly Alpine/Renault 1:31.367 1.721 22 194.643
15 Sergio Pérez Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1:31.440 1.794 15 194.488
16 Esteban Ocon Alpine/Renault 1:31.559 1.913 20 194.235
17 Daniel Ricciardo RB/Honda RBPT 1:31.561 1.915 17 194.231
18 Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:31.719 2.073 24 193.896
19 Valtteri Bottas Sauber/Ferrari 1:32.098 2.452 17 193.098
20 Zhou Guanyu Sauber/Ferrari 1:32.652 3.006 19 191.944