Three cars in a tenth to start in Singapore with Sainz in contention

After the amazing battle of Bakuanother good and equal match is expected in between Ferrari and McLaren at the Singapore GP. And with no other candidate joining the fray, so far, the first free practice sessions held this Friday at the Marina Bay street circuit have been marked by a tie in the lead between the two red cars and Lando Norris.

Charles Leclerc led the first practice session with a 1’31″763which surpassed the British team by only 76 thousandths Moving and in 0″189 to a Carlos Sainz that this weekend, on a track he likes and suits him well Ferrariwants to hit the table and repeat last year’s success Singapore.

Piastri lightly kisses the wall

For now, the king of Baku, Oscar Piastri, who gave a real driving lesson a few days ago, is more hidden, in sixth position, after suffering a small warning from the scary walls of the Marina Mr. The Australian slightly touched the Turn 10 wall with his right rear tire, but fortunately for him and his mechanic, his car was not damaged. On the other hand, what stood out was the good start of a Norris who arrived in Singapore looking to redeem himself after his mistake in qualifying in Baku and after missing a good chance to grab a good handful of points from Verstappen to fight for the title a few years ago.

Verstappen will start 4th but will have a tough time

This time around, Verstappen made sure on Thursday that he didn’t expect it to be his “best weekend” as this track combined everything his car was going through. The Red Bull suffers in the potholes and when climbing the curbs and that will complicate things for Max on a slippery track where Ferrari and McLaren should be better. Norris will thus have another good chance to grab some valuable points from Max’s 59 point lead. It may be too late with 7 races left, but Lando made it clear, with his second place finish in Free Practice 1, that he will fight it out with all his might.

Alonso, 9th with fear

Tsunoda finished in 5th position, showing that the times still need to improve a lot and we need to take them with a pinch of salt on a track that started very dirty and will improve throughout the end of week. After Piastri, 6th, were Daniel Ricciardo (7th) and Albon (8th). RB and Williams showed great potential from the start, thus sending a strong warning of their performance to Fernando Alonso, who has to try again to achieve the miracle of points in a green car that remains without evolution and that, as said Alonso , is So far the 7th car on the grid (out of 10). With those few weapons, as was the case at Zandvoort, Monza and Baku, he will try to fight for points again.

So far Alonso has started well, in 9th position at 0.847, yes, 3 tenths behind Tsunoda’s RB, two behind Ricciardo’s RB and just under two behind Albon’s Williams.

And to that 9th position we must add that Russell (16th) and Hamilton (12th) started at the back and should have been first.

Fernando Alonso has to drive to the limit to find the best times behind the wheel of a car that is difficult to drive. And that, between the walls, is synonymous with maximum stress and possible fears. It is clear from what happened to him in this Free Practice 1, when he almost lost control of his car and crashed into the wall. He was able to dominate it in an incredible way with an aggressive countersteering. Despite this, he achieved 9th place. But there are still many weekends left and the battle for points looks very complicated again.

Franco Colapinto should be in that even and tough fight. The ballot was complicated for Franco because he debuted on this track with an F1, in the most physically demanding GP and between the walls. The Argentine will be looking for the points for the second weekend in a row.