F1 Singapore GP Live Commentary and Updates - FP1 & FP2
Friday's action from the 15th round of the 2023 Formula 1 season
Live AppleTV Race Audio
Formula 1 heads away from Europe for an Asian double-header which starts at the Singapore GP, fresh from Max Verstappen’s historic 10th consecutive F1 win last time out in Italy.
But Singapore’s Marina Bay Street circuit remains one of the few venues the Dutch driver is yet to taste victory at, and it hosted arguably his worst performance of the season last year, when he went off and could only recover to seventh.
Verstappen currently leads the standings by a huge 145 points over Sergio Perez, making his charge to a third consecutive world crown a relative formality with eight races to go.
Singapore GP first practice starts at 10:30am BST followed by second practice at 2:00pm BST.
Norris now punches in the sixth fastest time on the hard tyres, albeit still 1.2s off the pace - now the two Ferraris have ducked under Alonso's previous best.
Leclerc is currently second ahead of Hamilton and Verstappen, whose preparation for his only flying lap to date was compromised by having to almost stop swerving through traffic at the final chicane.
Logan Sargeant is the first driver to start a flying lap in the Williams, resplendent in the Gulf colours. Another nice take on the age old colour scheme which last appeared on an F1 car with McLaren at the 2021 Monaco GP.
The green light is out at the end of the pitlane, and we're away for FP2. This is an anticlockwise circuit, so something of an outlier on the calendar where drivers usually turn right out of the garages.
Just five minutes then until we get going under the lights. Singapore was the original F1 night race in that 2008 race and, while others have followed suit, there's always something neat about returning to the original floodlit setting.
There is zero chance of rain for FP2, the timing screens inform us. Air temperature is a toasty 29.8 °C, while track temperatures are slightly higher at 37.3 °C.
Meanwhile the folks at Haas have been busy of late, announcing that they will become the latest converts to the downwash philosophy from the US Grand Prix. They can't come soon enough for drivers Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg, with the latter declaring they will be an early Christmas present for the American team as it seeks to keep up with Williams in the battle over seventh in the constructors' championship.
During the gap between sessions team principals took a grilling from the media, and Helmut Marko's recent comments about Sergio Perez - for which he has since apologised - were a hot topic. Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said his language “hasn’t got any place in Formula 1”, and you can read more on that here.
Those of a technical disposition will be thrilled to see several teams bringing upgrades this weekend, with Red Bull, AlphaTauri and McLaren all presenting their shiny new bits to media earlier on. Red Bull has a new rear wing and introduced revisions to the floor edge, while its sister squad and McLaren have both gone for a wide-ranging package of changes you can read about here.
Ferrari got off to a strong start earlier by logging a 1-2 in FP1, with Charles Leclerc heading Carlos Sainz. Of course the track is still rubbering in, and as a street venue this one is dustier than most, so expect times to fall further in this session as temperatures cool too.
One of the lizards is still on track as Norris goes inches away from collecting the little chap coming around the final corners. The chequered flag is out and, for the sake of the lizards, that's a relief.
A third yellow flag has popped up in the second sector... surely not another lizard? It is! "But a different one this time," Russell says, revealing himself as a part-time herpetologist.
The session is starting to wind down as the sun dips towards the horizon to create some very pretty low light. Everyone has switched back to the long runs so the Ferrari 1-2 looks locked in.
Russell has some choice words to describe Perez's car positioning at Turn 2 just as he started a fast lap... we'll leave you to fill in the rest, but Russell had to back out of the lap.
The early bragging rights are with Ferrari, but the Aston Martins are venturing out for the first time on the softs, so we will hold off for now before writing the session headlines.
Norris, on softs and a burst of flow-vis paint on the left-hand side of his engine cover, goes top again with a 1m33.522s which is nearly half a second quicker than nearest challenger Sainz.
The lizard is safely recovered as the track returns to green flag conditions. That interruption stopped some soft tyre runs, but the quick lap times are coming now.
Verstappen was the first to spot the lizard and says it is smaller than the previous times we've had lizards on the track at Singapore, to which his engineer Lambiase replies "Godzilla had a baby". Sound logic.
Aston Martin has its bow tie winglet back on, positioned just below the rain light of the car, which has caused a rear jack headache in the pitstops which the team has needed to solve.
