Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg was quickest on Friday in practice for the Singapore Grand Prix, while team-mate and Championship leader Lewis Hamilton had a hydraulic issue in FP2.
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Rosberg was 0.275 seconds quicker than Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, with the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo close behind. He completed just 12 laps during the session. Two of three practice sessions are held earlier in the evening, effectively discounting their effectiveness as preparation for the race due to the vastly differing track conditions to the ones in which qualifying and the race are held.
Will this mess up Hamilton’s race?
Friday’s two practice sessions already produced their fair share of accidents, with Team Renault’s Sebastian Grosjean even leaving parts of his car’s rear wings embedded in the perimeter safety fencing.
While Rosberg, who is just two points adrift of Hamilton in the championship after winning the last two races, was able to limp back to the pits, his error is unlikely to have aided his confidence at a circuit where he has failed to record a top-three finish since 2008.
Hamilton made quite a few mistakes on his ultrasoft tyre runs and did not set a time on the fastest tyre available this weekend. “The guys are working on it and it should be fine for tomorrow, which is the main thing”.
“It’s been okay”, he confirmed, “We know that this is the best track for Red Bull and Ferrari, so we just have to be careful and do the best we can”. Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, a four-time victor at the sport’s first night race, was also ahead of the Mercedes pair in third, 0.464 seconds off the pace.
“We were closing the gap previous year but unfortunately that gap to the top is still there, sometimes bigger, sometimes smaller but still there”.
“One run I didn’t get my lap on my ultra soft, I didn’t get the first lap, I didn’t get the second lap, I didn’t get the third lap”.
And on race pace, Red Bull appeared to have an advantage but the picture was not completely clear. Very tough. Add in ingredients like the glamorous visual spectacle of the Marina Bay circuit, the challenge of street racing, and the unique characteristics of racing in the high temperatures and humidity of South-East Asia, and you’ve got a weekend of thrilling action to look forward to.
“Tomorrow is important – it’s very hard to pass here so we try to trim everything towards qualifying”.
Vettel’s problems put him back in the mix with the midfield runners, headed by Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg in sixth.
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Verstappen topped the time sheets in first practice with the Dutch driver setting a lap time of 1min 45.823sec, 0.049 seconds ahead of his team-mate. “It wasn’t a problem later on in the session”.
