Singapore Grand Prix Practices
It’s one of the most-loved tracks by the drivers and fans alike – with it’s challenging conditions (humidity and heat) tough corners and the fact it’s a night time event makes this an exciting race!
Let’s take a look and see what happened during the practice sessions earlier today.
Singapore Grand Prix Practices – Red Bull Racing
Max Verstappen
Free Practice 1: P1 – 1:45.823 – Laps 25
Free Practice 2: P3 – 1:44.532 – Laps 29
Max – “It was a positive day for us and we can be happy with the balance of the car, for FP2 we weren’t fully there but we know what areas we need to work on and improve.”
“The car felt good and we are more or less there, we had a good start to the weekend, the tyres worked really well and I was very happy with the ultrasofts. There was quite a big difference between them and the supersofts.”
“I think it’s going to be an interesting battle between us, Mercedes and Ferrari – I’m looking forward to it.”
Daniel Ricciardo
Free Practice 1: P2 – 1:45.872 – Laps 27
Free Practice 2: P4 – 1:44.557 – Laps 26
Daniel – “This circuit is always difficult. You’re pushing the limit on a street circuit and you want to be comfortable in qualifying too so today is the day to experiment.”
“I had a bit of a spin and touched the barrier but the car was more or less okay. It’s hot, it’s tricky and everything is a little bit on the edge here, that’s for sure.”
“Finding a few tenths on this circuit can be quite easy, there are so many different corners and with the tyres overheating in the last sector, you can lose or gain a lot.”
“We still feel that we can get a little bit more speed out of the car so that’s what tonight is for – even if we find a few small things hopefully this will allow us to add up to quite a bit of lap time tomorrow.”
Singapore Grand Prix Practices – Sahara Force India
Nico Hülkenberg
Free Practice 1: 1:48,359 – P13 – 28 Laps
Free Practice 2: 1:45.182 – P6 – 35 laps
Nico: “It’s a good starting point for our weekend, we stuck to our plan, completed all our runs and got plenty of learning out of the laps which we did.”
“There’s still some work to do to be fully happy with the car but we looked quite competitive ahead of the race this weekend. We are still trying to understand where we stand in terms of long-run pace but the first impression is that our one-lap pace looks good.”
“Most teams usually take a big step forward between Friday and Saturday so we are not getting carried away, we’ve done preparation work ahead of the race this weekend which means tomorrow morning we can move on and switch our focus to qualifying.”
Sergio Perez
Free Practice 1: 1:48.214 – P12 – 28 Laps
Free Practice 2: 1:46.063 – P11 – 26 Laps
Sergio: “It wasn’t the easiest day in the car today, there are a few issues that we still need to solve and it means that I’m lacking confidence with the car. That’s not ideal for a street circuit.”
“We need to make some decisions tonight and find a direction that works for me and the team.”
“I had a brake problem during our long runs too and towards the end of the second practice session so it wasn’t really smooth. Even when you don’t have the best Friday, you can still recover and have a good weekend – I won’t change my approach for tomorrow – the focus still remains on getting the car in the best shape for qualifying.”
Robert Fernley – Deputy Team Principal
“It was a typical Singapore Friday, the track was dirty and the track conditions were very tricky especially during the opening 40 minutes of the first practice session which we saw.”
“Nico had a relatively straightforward day, getting through the plan without any significant concerns, he’s not quite happy with the car but there remains areas which we know we can find extra performance overnight.”
“Sergio on the other hand, his day wasn’t quite as smooth, he had some set-up issues which has left him chasing the ideal balance for the car. Despite those issues, we showed some reasonable long run pace and we now have a good understanding of the three different tyre compounds.”
Singapore Grand Prix Practices – Sauber F1 Team
Marcus Ericsson
Free Practice 1 : 20th – 1:51.479 Min – 16 Laps
Free Practice 2: 20th – 1:48.487 Min – 32 Laps
Marcus – “It’s been quite a difficult day, in FP1 I struggled with the car due to the power unit issues which we had and we decided to change the engine for FP2.”
“In this session (FP2) I had a good feeling on the supersoft tyres but for some reason, the ultrasoft compound I struggled to get them to work for the car and for the track. So far, we don’t really understand why that was the case and we’ll be looking into that overnight to analyse what happened.”
Felipe Nasr
Free Practice 1: 15th – 1:49.595 Min – 16 Laps
Free Practice 2: 18th – 1:47.531 – 29 Laps
Felipe – “It was a productive day. In FP1 we continued our evaluation of the aero package as we were running a high downforce configuration for the very first time.”
“It was good to collect this data and to get a feeling for the balance of the car. The rest of the weekend, we still have some work to do in terms of set-up and the car but with regards to the race, it will be important to have good tyre management.”
Lots more to come soon including the qualifying report tomorrow! 🙂
The Formula 1 Girl
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