What we learned in Friday practice for the 2025 F1 Singapore GP

It was a tentative start to the Singapore Grand Prix weekend, and understandably so; night races in typically hot conditions suffer from low-key FP1 sessions, where drivers largely use the full hour-long run time to acquaint themselves with a circuit's layout.

The dustiness of the Marina Bay Street Circuit was ample reason to take margin in the early phases of the session; the afternoon heat was another. Aside from the conflagration confined to Alex Albon's rear brakes, which enveloped his Williams pitbox in the miasma of burning carbon, the remaining 19 drivers were largely well-behaved.

When night-time descended upon Singapore's skyline, the ambiance shifted. There was more at stake in FP2, as nightfall offered the sole facsimile of conditions expected across qualifying and the race, and that prompted the drivers to push the margins a little bit more. Singapore's margins seldom wish to be pushed, however, and both George Russell and Liam Lawson found that to their detriment.

The two were the main factors in sapping FP2 of valuable run-time, totalling over 20 minutes of inactivity on-track. Russell's incident was, per his assessment, "weird"; the Briton stated that he'd braked a bit earlier for Turn 16 than normal, but his Mercedes did not seem entirely keen to slow down as the rear end wagged its tail.

He speared straight on into the Tecpro barrier, which reassembled the advertising hoarding and detached the wing from his nosecone, although Russell at least managed to drag his car back with a flat front-left tyre. Still, a clean-up operation was required to deal with the debris.

Not long after action had resumed - with low-fuel, soft-tyre runs taking priority at this point - Lawson made a misstep through Turns 16 and 17, prompting the rear end of his VCARB 02 to flick out in panic. As he nudged the exit wall with his right-rear, the car lost its footing and the front-right slapped the barrier in sympathy to peel the tyre away from the rim. He was aground in the pitlane entrance, prompting another red and for the remaining drivers to tip-toe around the stranded Racing Bulls driver.

Lawson slams into the barrier to end his Friday prematurely like Russell moments earlier

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Formula 1 via Getty Images

Did the moonlight madcappery end there? Not so! Ferrari might have been blinded by the floodlights when the scramble to enter the pitlane for the restart began, as it released Charles Leclerc directly into Lando Norris - who sustained a bent front wing and a graze against the pitwall in the process. Thankfully, it all seemed to calm down after that.

Given the FP2 silliness that unfolded, there's very little we can ascertain with regards to the race runs - but we can at least build a picture for qualifying and work from there.

Piastri sets early marker to brush off Baku bruises

Oscar Piastri's FP2 headliner, a 1m30.714s, will be a not-insignificant fillip to his confidence after shaking off the battering he sustained in Azerbaijan two weeks ago. While his team-mate was subject to the Ferrari-instigated pitlane drama ahead of the final act of Friday practice, Piastri thrived away from the spotlight and delivered a clean, quick lap on demand - symbolic of having moved on from last time out.

"I'm missing all of the feelings that I had here last year. There's plenty of things to work on. Oscar's quick, so I've got nothing to complain about" Lando Norris

It was a night-and-day difference comparison to his main championship rival in Norris, who reverted to his usual brand of self-flagellation when his final effort on soft tyres was almost half a second behind Piastri's benchmark effort. He pointed out over the radio that his own driving was to blame for the arrears, rather than laying the criticism upon his set-up.

"It's just a difficult day for me, I'm not feeling too great with the car," Norris rued post-session. "I'm missing all of the feelings that I had here last year. There's plenty of things to work on. Oscar's quick, so I've got nothing to complain about, bar just not doing a very good job."

Some of the key points of comparison rest in their approaches to the final two sectors; Norris lifted off the throttle more through Turn 12, which sapped at his closing speed for the Turn 13 hairpin ahead of the bridge section, and also came off throttle for Turn 14, 16 and Turn 18 sooner than Piastri. Either this demonstrates a lack of confidence in the front-end of the car - both McLaren drivers asked for more front wing during FP1 due to understeer - or Norris was simply driving within himself.

Pitlane tap from Leclerc aside, it was a difficult day for Norris

Photo by: Mohd Rasfan - AFP - Getty Images

Piastri has, by contrast, shown no damage to his confidence. It's a nice allegory for life - it's not in how you get knocked down, but in how you recover and scoop yourself off the floor.

The Max factor: Verstappen enjoys 'best Friday in years' at Singapore

Max Verstappen has never won the Singapore GP. His famed speed-run to the 2023 championship was tarnished only by Red Bull's surprising off weekend at the city-state; thus, the race remains his white whale.

This could be the weekend where Captain Ahab finally catches Moby Dick, if Red Bull continues to play its cards right. There's a new sheen to Red Bull, one devoid of the previous baggage and infighting that started to hold the team back - resulting in Verstappen's flirtations with the exit door. Laurent Mekies appears to have given Red Bull's technical personnel much more power, lending a sense of agility and freedom to exorcise the demons from a difficult RB21.

One of the markers of Red Bull's streak coming to an end emerged last year, where the baseline set-up did not seem to be anywhere near the working window of the car. With iterative approaches, this progressed through the practice sessions and the car would usually be competitive by qualifying, but one wonders if Verstappen's title last year would have received even a token challenge had the baseline been further along.

Usually, Helmut Marko's typically blunt post-Friday musings would be downbeat, but the forthright Austrian has recently been more effusive in his practice after the FP1 and FP2 sessions. Singapore was no different; Verstappen might not have been top of the pops, but was only 0.143s away from Piastri's headline effort. If Red Bull's overnight fact-finding can continue to bear similar fruit to recent rounds, then it bodes well for Verstappen's whale-hunting endeavours.

"It was the best Friday since I don't know how many years here, so we definitely made a step forward," Marko told Autosport. "I think in qualifying it will be within hundreds of seconds; long runs, nobody could do because of the two red flags, but Max is happy with the car. There are still some little things to adjust and in the end it will be very, very tight."

Red Bull is confident of Verstappen's chances in Singapore - the only race on the F1 calendar he has not won at before

Photo by: Zak Mauger / LAT Images via Getty Images

For the first time since the start of last season, Verstappen has momentum. While his championship defence aspirations remain distinctly slim, it would be foolish to count him out given his current run of form. Pole in Singapore - and a win, all being well - would be a considerable statement of intent.

Can Aston Martin and Alonso vanquish the night?

Based on his competitiveness across both practice sessions, Fernando Alonso might have licence to revel in dark-horse status in the lead-up to qualifying. The veteran Spaniard was quickest in FP1 and fourth-fastest in FP2, which rather suggests that Aston Martin has the machinery for the occasion.

Alonso's laps, when viewed on-board, did not look amazingly stellar; he was fighting his AMR25 at the wheel, but very much had it in a headlock when he punched in his best laps of each session. Team principal Andy Cowell noted that it was much easier to get the Aston into a better frame of performance for Singapore; although the circuit is notoriously bumpy and the night-time vistas accentuate the sparking underbodies of each car, the lack of high-load corners tends to reduce the compromise needed on ride heights.

Ferrari didn't quite demonstrate its full potential and, if that continues into Saturday, the Prancing Horse could find a quartet of green and white cars nipping at its hooves

The Aston Martin struggles when the ride heights are raised but, at a lower level, the car can start to generate more consistent downforce. That's a bonus in the traction zones, of which there are many through Singapore's myriad 90-degree corners.

"I think this circuit characteristic suits our car a little bit better," Cowell said. "We struggle on the higher speed tracks, so Baku as an example: a long fast sector three, high downforce, the car pushes down, therefore you've got to lift the car so you don't wear the skid out, but then around sector one and two you've got a car that's sat higher up. Here I guess it's a little bit like Baku but without sector three."

Racing Bulls also looked strong, Lawson's wall-hugging antics aside. Isack Hadjar, a newcomer to Singapore, hurled his car between Piastri and Verstappen on the timesheets late on into FP2, and the Frenchman looked like he had everything under control. The VCARB lineage has always been strong in slow-speed corners, a trait that can be traced back to the AlphaTauri AT04, and Hadjar looked to be making the most of that.

Ferrari didn't quite demonstrate its full potential and, if that continues into Saturday, the Prancing Horse could find a quartet of green and white cars nipping at its hooves. That's also something for Mercedes to consider; Russell's shunt derailed much of its running in FP2, leaving only Andrea Kimi Antonelli as its representative runner in FP2. In the hot conditions, the Silver Arrows may very well find itself playing only a cameo role if it can't unlock more stability overnight.

Could Hadjar light up Singapore for Racing Bulls?

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