@LewisHamilton edges @Max33Verstappen in #SingaporeGP FP2. #F1
Hamilton edges Verstappen in Singapore GP FP2
Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport’s Lewis Hamilton outpaced Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen by 0.184 seconds in Free Practice Two at the Singapore Grand Prix.
Hamilton jumped to the front early, whilst running the yellow-branded C4 medium compounds, posting a best effort of a 1:39.991.
Verstappen using C3 hards, was second fastest during this stage of the hour and a half practice session.
As normal, the grid switched to the red side-walled C5 softs for their qualifying simulation runs.
The other Honda-powered Red Bull RB15 of Alexander Albon, was the first to hit top spot with a 1:39.943, only to be demoted shortly afterwards by team-mate Verstappen.
Hamilton then grabbed top spot back with a 1:38.773, which remained the benchmark for the rest of the session.
Both drivers pushed to improve but were unable to do so on their next attempts, with Verstappen reporting over the radio that he could do better after his lap was compromised in the third sector.
Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel made it to third place in his final qualifying simulation run after traffic frustrated the German on his earlier attempts – the most notable by Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen who was described as “sleeping” by the Ferrari driver – but was still six tenths adrift than Verstappen.
The second Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas recovered from his FP1 crash to take fourth quickest in the session, but was 1.121 seconds off of team-mate Hamilton.
The other Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, whose FP1 session was hampered by a gearbox failure, ended the day sixth quickest after also being hit with traffic on his qualifying simulation attempts.
Leclerc was only a tenth quicker than Albon, with the latter finishing the session in fifth place after tough FP2, which saw the Thai-Briton have an early excursion into the turn seven run-off area before smashing the front wing of his RB15 racer into the turn ten barriers.
McLaren’s Carlos Sainz was seventh in the time-sheets and nearly two tenths clear of eighth-placed Renault of Nico Hulkenberg.
The second McLaren of Lando Norris ended FP2 in ninth, lapping two tenths off of team-mate Sainz, with Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly completing the top ten.
Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat who had an early clip of the wall, finished 11th quickest and within a tenth of team-mate Gasly, while Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo ended up 12th.
Racing Point’s Sergio Perez finished the day 13th and 2.102 seconds adrift of Hamilton’s benchmark, with the Mexican angering Haas F1 Team’s Magnussen during the qualifying simulation running, when he drifted his RP19 racer right into the path of the Dane, as the Haas driver was attempting to pass him on that side.
Perez was reprimanded for his incident with Magnussen following an investigation from the stewards.
Alfa Romeo Racing’s Antonio Giovinazzi and Kimi Raikkonen finished the day 14th and 16th respectively, with Racing Point’s Lance Stroll sandwiched in 15th place.
Both Giovinazzi and Stroll posted identical lap times with a 1:41.128, but the former was classified ahead as he set his time earlier on.
Haas F1 Team’s Romain Grosjean and Magnussen wound up 17th and 19th respectively, putting the duo in amongst the Williams pairing.
ROKiT Williams Racing’s George Russell, who was running as high in sixth place, due to being the first driver to complete a qualifying simulation flyer, with team-mate Robert Kubica brought up the rear and 0.732 seconds off his team-mate.
You can read the full Formula 1 Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix Free Practice Two Classification right here at the link:
https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2019/races/1014/singapore/practice-2.html
You can also check out what happened in Free Practice 1 as well as catch up on this weekend’s race preview at the following links:
@Max33Verstappen pips #Vettel in opening practice. #SingaporeGP #F1
#Formula1 Singapore Airlines #SingaporeGP 2019 Preview – F1
Selected Driver Quotes
Lewis Hamilton, #44, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W10 EQ Power+: “It’s always a shock to the system when you first get in the car here in Singapore because it’s very bumpy, it’s a long lap and it’s so hot out there – it’s like a sauna in the car. But it’s been a solid first day, we got through our run plan and continued to improve the car, so I’m really happy with it. I felt much better in the car today than I have for a while, so I hope I can keep that feeling over the weekend. They re-did a few bits of tarmac on the circuit and I managed to get the tyres working well. If you can get into a groove and into a rhythm here, it’s such a beautiful lap, so I’ve really been enjoying it. But nothing’s ever perfect and we definitely have some areas that we can still improve on. We’ve got off to a good start, but the Red Bulls looked very quick and we still have to put it all together tomorrow, which is not going to be easy.”
Valtteri Bottas, #77, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W10 EQ Power+: “It’s been a tricky day. I had a bit of an off moment at the end of FP1, which ended my running a little early. I lost the back end in Turn 19 and at this track with no run-off you pay the price. In the late session, I was lacking pace on every run and on both compounds, so I’m not quite sure everything was right with the car. It just felt like I couldn’t go any quicker, so we’ll need to have a look at that. I felt friction in the steering system, so I struggled to feel the car properly. I think it’s going to be close between three teams tomorrow, so we’ll have to push, especially in Q3.”
Sebastian Vettel, #5, Scuderia Ferrari, SF90: “Hungary is the reference circuit for this track but today is maybe not the right day to compare and tomorrow will be a lot more straightforward. It was not the smoothest of Fridays for us and I think there’s still a margin for improvement on the car. However our rivals look very fast, certainly faster than us. The soft is the tyre we don’t use so much, it has greater grip but doesn’t last so long. Today was not that bad and the medium tyre was not much better. However, tomorrow we focus on the softs and when it comes to the race, as usual here, we will all be trying to survive on just one stop and manage the race. As I said we can still improve, because the car is not yet doing exactly what I want, and in terms of balance we know where we can find some lap time. All the new parts that we brought seem to work, so let’s see how close we can get tomorrow.”
Charles Leclerc, #16, Scuderia Ferrari, SF90: “It was a rather tricky day on my side. We had an issue in FP1, so we couldn’t complete as many laps as we had planned, which was unfortunate. In the second session, I didn’t feel fully comfortable with the car balance or the track yet, and I think that there is also quite a bit of lap time to be gained by me improving my driving. We will analyse the data and make sure that we take a good step forward for tomorrow. Coming to Singapore, we knew that our competitors would be strong and that it would not be the easiest weekend for us. But it’s not finished yet. We will give our all to come back stronger tomorrow.”
Max Verstappen, #33, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda, RB15: “It was a good day. We are competitive and the car was working really well in both practice sessions. I had traffic in the last sector on my qualifying simulation and I only improved by two tenths compared to the hard tyre run, which means we have more to come. I think we look strong on long and short runs but of course, Lewis also looks very fast. It’s not an easy track to understand and it is very bumpy out there but with a competitive car it’s really enjoyable to drive. There are always things that can be improved which we will look at now and this race is 95 percent about qualifying and I’m feeling positive so far.”
Alexander Albon, #23, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda, RB15: “This was not the easiest day. The tyres were a little difficult, especially on the long runs. But I’m focused on my performance and getting used to the car and it is feeling good. The most crucial thing for me now is to get into a rhythm as this is not an easy track. I did have an off which was not so great. I was pushing and had a lock up. I hit the barrier which took the front wing off. It did affect my confidence a little, but I was happy that even after that, my lap time was ok. I haven’t been on this circuit before but the sim correlates quite well. This track is so technical with a lot of corners so if I make one mistake it’s over. I need to go for clean driving while also pushing the limit. Also, everything over heats, not just me but the tyres and brakes, so that’s going to be an additional challenge. My hope for tomorrow is that I qualify in the second row but we shall see.”
Daniel Ricciardo, #3, Renault F1 Team, R.S.19: “Today seemed to go alright. I have a bit to find on short runs but I’m not too worried. I know we’ll find some pace quite easily, it’s just some small things. The long runs seemed a bit more positive. The car was certainly there, but I just need to put it all together. We’ll work on that tonight and analyse the data. Nico was well in the top ten all day so it shows the potential of the car. I knew this would be trickier than Monza, but we’re not in bad shape.”
Nico Hulkenberg, #27, Renault F1 Team, R.S.19: “It’s always tricky in Singapore as it’s a busy circuit and very humid. I felt at home on the low fuel runs and I had a good rhythm with the car doing what I wanted. The long runs seem to be more challenging at this stage and I struggled a bit in FP2. We’ll investigate that and see what’s going on. Apart from that, it was an okay Friday with no big issues. As expected, it will be tight this weekend but we have a competitive package to fight for points.”
Kevin Magnussen, #20, Haas F1 Team, VF-19: “It was a little bit difficult today. We weren’t very fast, lots of sliding around, we don’t look fantastic. You never know, maybe things will change tomorrow, we’ve seen that before – but that’s all we can hope for. We’ll obviously do our best to see if we can find the issues, but at the moment it doesn’t look great. It’s very hot here, we need to cool the car a lot, so the aero spec is a bit different because of that. There are a lot of variables, a lot of things that could play into this lack of performance. It’s not easy to say these things, but we’ll work hard tonight.”
Carlos Sainz, #55, McLaren-Renault F1 Team, MCL34: “A good start to the weekend here in Singapore, improving the feeling with the car step-by-step, taking the right decisions on set-up and finishing the day with two top-10s. We need to stay alert though, because here the conditions change a lot from Friday to Saturday. Tomorrow we could find a different track and a different situation. We’ll work tonight to optimise the car and maximise our chances for qualifying.”
Pierre Gasly, #10, Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda, STR14: “It was a positive first day for us in Singapore. We did a few tests but we have some more work to do tonight to improve. Finishing in the top ten in both sessions was a good start to the weekend and the pace looks decent. I think it will be really tight in Qualifying, so it will be important to put things together overnight to give ourselves the best chance tomorrow. I’m feeling good in the car, which is encouraging.”
Sergio Perez, #11, SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team, RP19: “It’s always physically tough in the car here because the heat takes a lot out of you, but I really enjoy the experience: it’s a track that tests you as a driver and you have to build up your speed session by session. We still have a lot of work to do, but I think we have a car that can fight for a place in Q3. It’s always a positive to add new parts to the car and we have a huge amount of information to explore tonight so that we can choose the right direction for tomorrow.”
Kimi Raikkonen, #7, Alfa Romeo Racing, C38: “It’s hard to say where we stand as our first session was quite messy. We lost all the electric power and therefore telemetry in the garage so I had to stand there for nearly an hour and I lost precious lap time. In FP2 we tried to catch up and we improved, but still we have an awful lot of work to do tomorrow.”
Robert Kubica, #88, ROKiT Williams Racing, FW42: “It was hot and tough, but we knew it would be like that before coming here. It is the toughest track and the conditions are challenging. As usual, it is never easy to find the feeling on Friday in Singapore. FP1 was not bad, but I didn’t get the same feeling in the car in FP2, so we will have to see what we changed and why the balance shifted so much. We will look at the data and move forward from there.
F1 Driver Market News
Kubica to leave Williams at season’s end
ROKiT Williams Racing confirmed that Robert Kubica has decided to leave the Grove-based outfit at the end of the 2019 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season.
Kubica impressed the team after conducting several tests in 2017, which saw the Pole become Williams’ Reserve and Development driver for the 2018 campaign.
This season, he stepped up to take a race seat alongside reigning FIA Formula 2 Champion George Russell, with Kubica scoring the teams only point so far at the 2019 German Grand Prix.
You can read the full statement from Kubica and Deputy Team Principal of ROKiT Williams Racing Claire Williams at the link: https://www.williamsf1.com/racing/news/2019/09/robert-kubica-to-leave-rokit-williams-racing-at-end-of-2019-season
Williams will announce it’s 2020 driver line-up in time with their test and reserve driver Nicholas Latifi likely to take the role alongside Russell.
Haas F1 Team retain Grosjean and Magnussen for 2020
Haas F1 Team have retained driver pairing Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen for the 2020 FIA Formula One World Championship season.
Grosjean and Magnussen will be teamed together for the fourth-consecutive year for the American-squad as the outfit prepares for it’s fifth year in the sport.
Grosjean has been with the team since 2016, it’s first year in Formula One, whilst Magnussen joined the squad in 2017.
The duo have scored a total of 166 points since partnering together in 2017, and last campaign saw the pairing help Haas to claim fifth in the Constructors Championship with 93 points, which was the Kannapolis-Banbury outfit’s best placing to date.
You can read the full statements from Haas F1 Team Principal Guenther Steiner, Grosjean and Magnussen at the following link: https://www.haasf1team.com/news/haas-f1-team-confirms-grosjean-and-magnussen-2020