F1 Singapore GP live commentary and updates – FP3
Follow along for updates from Formula 1's third practice session at Marina Bay ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix
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WE'LL BE BACK
Just over two hours to go until qualifying begins. Will Liam Lawson's industrious mechanics reassemble his car in time after he smote the wall earlier?
One thing is for sure: nobody will be able to consider themselves safe in the knock-out portions of qualifying, so small are the gaps. Just five tenths separated the top 10 in FP3...
VERSTAPPEN FASTEST IN FP3
Incredible scenes in the final moments of third practice in Singapore. The top five separated by just 0.089s as Antonelli and Norris also improve in the seconds before the flag.
Indeed, everyone down to Franco Colapinto in P16 is within a second of the fastest time in this session.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images via Getty Images
Piastri does a personal best in sector one, is purple in sector two... then another PB in the third sector means he ends the session P2 with a 1m30.165s, 0.017s off Verstappen, who remains P1.
Gasly currently the big outlier of the qualifying sims. He had to abort his previous push lap when a dawdling Nico Hulkenberg baulked him. Now his next push lap has gone for a burton when he came across team-mate Franco Colapinto and Max Verstappen at the same corner.
Hadjar leaps five places with a 1m30.489 - on the same set of softs he used for his previous push lap.
But currently just over four tenths of a second separating Hamilton in P6 and Verstappen in P1.
Neat lap by Alex Albon but it's only good for P10 for now. Just over one tenth of a second separating Hamilton in P6 and Hadjar in P11
Still daylight in Singapore but the track is evolving rapidly as we get into the final minutes of the session.
Antonelli improves his time but he's stil 0.222s off Norris; Max Verstappen does a 1m30.148s to go fastest of all, and it's close but no cigar for George Russell, whose push lap is 0.049s off Max.
Hadjar goes purple in sector three and posts what is briefly the second fastest time until Lando Norris crosses the line in 1m30.292s, which is 0.335s faster than the time with which Oscar Piastri answers. Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz also now faster than Piastri.
STAND BY FOR ACTION
Charles Leclerc hits the track on softs, posts a 1m30.651 to punt Antonelli down to P2.
The Mercedes and the Williams are heading back out on softs again too.
LIMPING HOME
Fernando Alonso's Aston Martin has gone into 'limp home' mode, much to his chagrin over the team radio.
Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing AMR25
Photo by: Shameem Fahath / Motorsport Network
Only the Williams and Mercedes drivers out on softs at the moment but surely the qualifying sims are coming.
Alex Albon also explores the escape road at Turn 16. That's scuppered another push lap on softs.
NOTED
Ah the dread word "noted" pops up on our data screen. Lewis Hamilton for an alleged red-flag infringement. Well that's all he needs after the week he's had.
Boom! Kimi Antonelli goes top with a 1m30.760s on softs. That's only his second push lap of the day – he didn't even get to do one in FP2.
IT IS HE
Charles Leclerc also lapping on mediums, currently P18 and 2.479s off the front, but he's clearly on a race simulation since he's not using DRS around the lap.
No sooner do we flag that up than Verstappen is demoted to P5 by Lewis Hamilton, who is also circulating on mediums.
Max Verstappen now goes P4 on mediums, 0.505s off Norris.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Colin McMaster / LAT Images via Getty Images
"The drinks system is horrible, I'm going to drown" says Yuki Tsunoda. Can't stand the smell of Red Bull myself.
Russell sets the first flier of this restarted segment on softs, 0.686s off Norris's benchmark.
Carlos Sainz was on a flying lap but has locked up and gone up an escape road.
That, of course, is Liam Lawson's second red-flag inducing crash of the weekend, for those of you who enjoy spurious statistics. His mechanics are busier than Christian Horner's lawyers...
DRAPEAU ROUGE
Liam Lawson gets on the kerb at the exit of Turn 7, the floor of his Racing Bulls rides along the top of it, and he meets the wall. His front wing goes skittering away in front of him.
"I don't know what happened," Lawson says on the radio.
We are reminded of the 1999 Sebring 12 Hours, when Steve Soper had a shunt in his BMW prototype and Autosport's reporter tracked him down: "Steve, what happened?"
Soper fixed him with a steely glare and said "I crashed".
"Welcome back – that was a very good lap." Encouraging words from Lando Norris's race engineer Will Joseph. It was indeed, for mediums.
Replays showing Sainz tripping over Norris on his warm-up lap. Norris now goes P1 with a 1m31.021s on mediums.
Nothing to get excited about just yet – we're still over three tenths off the quickest time from FP2.
Well what do we know? Carlos Sainz goes out on softs and posts a lap of 1m31.960s. Team-mate Alex Albon 0.357s off on the same compound.
George Russell also unhurriedly making his way into his Merc cockpit to essay some laps on the medium Pirellis. Not much obvious sense in going for a laptime just yet since it's still daytime and the track conditions aren't representative.
More cars filtering out onto the track. Don't expect laptime fireworks just yet because they're all on mediums.
Kimi Antonelli also strapping into his Mercedes with some yellow-banded boots on the car. He didn't get to put in a soft-tyre lap in FP2 because of the red flags.
AND WE'RE OFF
10 cars out on track already - both McLarens, both Racing Bulls, both Haases, both Alpines, Yuki Tsunoda and Gabriel Bortoleto.
VOWLES MOVEMENT
On the subject of weekend formats – since we're in Singapore, which will be one of the sprint venues next year – Williams team principal James Vowles has pitched in with the idea of two-day grand prix weekends. His reasoning is that if practice is the problem – it gives teams time to hone setups, reduces unpredictability, and, as F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali has pointed out, is fundamentally not very interesting for the audience – shorten the weekend.
ONCE MORE WITHOUT FEELING
One of the other storylines emerging from yesterday was that Lando Norris wasn't very happy with the feeling in his car. Norris appeared to struggle through both practice sessions yesterday, while McLaren team-mate and championship leader Oscar Piastri topped FP2.
Lando Norris, McLaren
Photo by: Shameem Fahath / Motorsport Network
Over and dunne
Lots of news to unpack from yesterday, including the news that Alex Dunne has parted ways from the McLaren young driver programme. We understand they could not come to an agreement over the way forward. Well, such impasses can often be resolved by a game of Spin the Bottle.
Anyhow, while Alex may be 'dunne' with McLaren, Red Bull have confirmed he's the sort of driver that would fit well in their setup...
Alexander Dunne, McLaren
Photo by: Steven Tee / LAT Images via Getty Images
WELCOME TO FP3 IN SINGAPORE
We're back and the track is about to go live for third practice. It was an eventful day yesterday as two red flags interrupted the long runs, leaving Jake Boxall-Legge sweating more profusely than Gregg Wallace's agent when he came to working out what we'd actually learned. But learn he did.
Not around yesterday? Fear not...
By: Stuart Codling
