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Formula 1
Singapore GP
F1 Singapore GP Live Commentary and Updates - FP3 & Qualifying
Saturday's action from the 15th round of the 2023 Formula 1 season
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Max Verstappen will be hunting his first Marina Bay victory this weekend, having scored an historic 10th consecutive F1 win last time out in Italy.
It hosted arguably his worst performance of the season last year, when he went off and could only recover to seventh.
Ferrari led Friday practice, with Charles Leclerc topping FP1 as lizards caused disruption, before team-mate Carlos Sainz was quickest in the second practice session.
Singapore GP final practice starts at 10:30am BST, followed by qualifying at 2:00pm BST.
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The first sub-1m33s lap comes from Norris on a 1m32.556s flyer, just quicker than Perez on 1m33.563s.
The first flying lap of the session is a 1m35.098s from Sargeant. That is rapidly beaten by the Haas drivers getting into the low-to-mid 1m33s.
Traffic at the end of the lap is going to be a big factor in Q1. Engineers will need to be extra vigilant in warning drivers preparing for a hot lap of those coming towards the end of a flyer.
Green flag
The green light at the end of the pitlane is on and we're go for Q1 in Singapore.
Cars are queuing at the pit exit ready for what promises to be a busy Q1.
There's only a 10% chance of rain for qualifying, while air temperature is 29.6 °C and track temperature is 34.8 °C. Humidity is a remarkable 76%. Stuffy.
Alonso has started on the front row four times this year, each on a street track; Jeddah, Miami, Monaco and Montreal. The fifth occasion an Aston started on the front row? Roy Salvadori in the 1959 British GP.
Alonso is another driver who will go into qualifying with reason to feel chipper. He had the strongest pace of anybody in FP2's medium tyre runs - as you can read about here - and has to be targeting another strong finish for Aston Martin. There's been plenty of talk lately, triggered by Felipe Massa's legal case against F1, about the controversial nature of his 2008 win helped in no small part by the deliberate crash of his Renault team-mate Nelson Piquet Jr. What better way to switch up the narrative than giving Aston Martin a maiden pole?
If we're talking about candidates for pole beyond the Ferraris, Lewis Hamilton has to be in the discussion. He's take pole here four times; in 2009 in a dog of a McLaren, in an unreliable McLaren in 2012, and twice for Mercedes in 2014 and 2018. Three wins from those four poles means he's the second most successful driver in Singapore behind five-time winner Sebastian Vettel, and the most on the current grid ahead of Fernando Alonso - whose wins in 2008 and 2010 we'll go on to discuss...
Of course, practice is practice and it's qualifying that truly counts. Will Red Bull have been able to dial out the balance struggles that Verstappen so audibly complained about yesterday during sim running overnight? It had better hope so, because it's not often that we've seen drivers make surging comebacks from lowly grid positions here.
So why have Red Bull been under the weather? There was plenty of talk in the lead up to the event about the changes to the track, removing the slow sequence of 90-degree corners, favouring the competition that often fire up their tyres quicker than the RB19. Balance was a problem for both Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez yesterday, and the runaway points leader was still three tenths behind Sainz in FP3.
Sainz then is a driver we can expect to contend for pole, but don't go writing off his team-mate. You have to go back to 2018 to find a driver other than Charles Leclerc on pole in Singapore; he earned the qualifying plaudits in 2019 and did so again on F1's long-awaited post-pandemic return last year.
Carlos Sainz was on fine form in Monza, where he produced arguably his best performance to date in F1 to qualify on pole and finish third after putting up a stiff resistance to the Red Bull onslaught. He headed FP2 in conditions similar to those we can expect in qualifying yesterday, and also led the way earlier on today in FP3 as the sun set.
From a look at the timesheets, you'd be forgiven for thinking we were back in 2022 when Ferrari had a car that could take the challenge to Red Bull for much of the season. This year has been a whitewash for Red Bull, but practice times suggest the Milton Keynes squad has a tougher ask to continue its 100% winning run with Ferrari topping all three sessions.
Good afternoon and welcome back to Autosport's live text coverage of track action from Singapore. We're just 20 minutes away from qualifying, which promises to be one of the most crucial of the year.
We're off for a spot of lunch now, but we'll be back shortly before 2pm BST for qualifying! Who do you think will be on pole?
Read the full FP3 report here: https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/f1-singapore-gp-sainz-shades-russell-in-fp3-to-retain-ferrari-supremacy/10521011/
Sainz topped FP3 ahead of Russell, Norris, Verstappen and Leclerc
With that, Carlos Sainz completes a Ferrari clean sweep of practice sessions for the Singapore GP. Will they be quickest in qualifying later too?
Verstappen says his upshifts are "miles off still", and says it's affecting his downshifts too
Checkered flag
And there's the chequered flag!
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Verstappen goes fourth-fastest, 0.3s off Carlos Sainz who leads
Verstappen is on another flying lap - have those pesky upshifts been fixed?
Five minutes remaining of practice and Sainz leads from Norris and Russell
Verstappen is told to box this lap so his team can have a look at those troublesome upshifts
Verstappen is still frustrated about his upshifts, which he says are "unacceptable"
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With 10 minutes to go, Carlos Sainz goes quickest with a 1m32.065s
Almost everyone is out on the soft tyres now as we enter the final 15 minutes of practice
As the times continue to fall, Hamilton goes third-fastest for Mercedes with a 1m32.535s
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Norris goes quickest ahead of Russell, with Ocon in third ahead of Alonso
Albon goes fourth fastest, also on the soft tyre, with Sainz in third
Russell and Hamilton still lead the way with 20 minutes remaining, but they're the only frontrunners to have completed soft-tyre runs
Luckily, this session appears to be a lizard-free zone so far
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The Mercedes pair currently lead the times, with Russell top after a 1m32.883s
Hello to Daniel Ricciardo, who is in the AlphaTauri garage this weekend as he continues to recover from his hand injury 👋🏻
Yellow flag
Brief yellow flag there after a spin for Lawson but he escapes without any contact
Sainz is now back on top, with a 1m33.195s, ahead of Russell and Verstappen
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Not for long though, as Russell goes faster still with a 1m33.440s!
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Charles Leclerc slots into second, just 0.003s off Verstappen
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Verstappen goes fastest again with a 1m33.660s, though he complains of some upshift issues
By: Autosport Staff
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