#SingaporeGP FP1: @LewisHamilton tops time-sheets ahead of @Max33Verstappen. #F1

Hamilton Singapore GP FP1 – Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton pipped points leader Max Verstappen by 0.084 seconds to take top spot in FP1 at the Singapore GP as Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc completed the top three.

 

 

The seven-time world champion, who complained about the difficult driveability of his F1 W13 racer earlier on, put on a fresh set of C5 red-marked softer compounds and was quickest by a narrow 0.084 seconds.

 

This demoted Verstappen, the Red Bull driver having dominated the majority of the hour-long practice session, to second whilst Leclerc overcame initial braking issues to round out the top three.

 

Verstappen was running in a league of his own from his initial tours in FP1 as the Dutchman ended the opening 25-minute stint with a 1.1 second buffer over Alpine’s Fernando Alonso.

 

The Alfa Romeo’s were the first to take to the Marina Bay Street Circuit to a roar of cheers from the main grandstand, but it took until Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz to register the first benchmark of the session with a 1:50.961.

 

But keeping to his 2022 form, Verstappen blew it away with a quick 1:47.329 on the yellow side-walled C4 medium rubber to lead team-mate Sergio Perez.

 

Alonso then made short work of the Red Bull before spending the rest of proceedings attempting to split the two RB18 racers at the top before Verstappen kept chipping away at the times to set the pace.

 

After ten minutes, Verstappen brought his benchmark to a 1:45.466 to find 1.825 seconds over Alonso then lowered it further into the 1:44’s, running fastest in all three sectors to post a 1:44.236 to find 1.1 seconds over Alonso as Perez was third with a 1:45.349.

 

Having run only one installation tour before Leclerc was required to come in for 25 minutes to fix a brakes problem, Sainz lead the F1-75 entries in fourth on the classifications whilst using the slower C3 white-branded harder tyres as the Spaniard made major setup tweaks after his opening stint.

 

Whilst there were occasional snaps of oversteer and kerb jumping, the only incident during the first 30 was Mercedes’ George Russell tapping the turn 11 barriers.

 

The Briton locked the inside wheels whilst slowing for the tight right-hander and went straight on, but soon reversed the undamaged F1 W13 and brought it in for a precautionary garage visit.

 

However, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll brought out the red flag with 20 minutes remaining to run after the Canadian, fourth at the time, went wide at turn five and whacked the outside wall.

 

At the right-hand corner where Sainz suffered a wild moment with a huge slide, Stroll buckled his Mercedes-powered AMR22 racer’s left-rear corner and suffered a puncture to pull off and forced the session to be stopped.

 

Despite the first and second sectors being under yellow flags, Verstappen just made it round in time to squeeze in a 1:43.117 to go fastest to relegate Red Bull team-mate Perez by seven tenths.

 

FP1 returned to green four minutes later, but only five cars emerged, one of which was Ferrari’s Sainz who ran on softer rubber to post a 1:44.138 to go third, but was a full-second off Verstappen – partly down after a massive rear-end slide through the final corner, that forced the Spaniard well-wide.

 

Leclerc got much closer to rival Verstappen on his initial flyer on the softs, even if he was battling a twitchy F1-75. The Monegasque driver set a 1:43.435 to go second quickest, dropping three tenths to Verstappen. but having taken the fastest time in sector two.

 

But with five minutes remaining, Verstappen ran on the medium rubber and suffered a lock-up to go down the turn 16 run-off area, Hamilton flew to the top of the time-sheets – assisted by a but of track evolution – by a narrow 0.084 seconds after setting a 1:43.033.

 

Verstappen would therefore be in second, the reigning world champion holding a 116-point lead, whilst Leclerc – who must finish ninth or higher to take the narrow title-fight to Japan – was third in the order.

 

Perez placed fourth in the other RB18 entry, as Red Bull along with Aston Martin are suspected to have breached the 2021 budget cap, whilst Russell rounded out the top five ahead of Sainz.

 

BWT Alpine F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon took seventh as Stroll slipped to eighth over AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly who was ninth and team-mate Alonso who ended FP1 in 10th place.

 

Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel ended the session outside the top ten in 11th and in-front of McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo who placed 12th, Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas who was 13th and Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen who came 14th in the field.

 

Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda finished 15th in the order and ahead of Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon who was 16th and Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu who took 17th.

 

Haas F1 Team’s Mick Schumacher placed 18th on the time-sheets and in-front of McLaren’s Lando Norris who was a low 19th and Williams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi who brought up the rear.

 

You can see the full Formula 1 Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix 2022 Free Practice 1 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2022/races/1133/singapore/practice-1.html

 

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#F1 Singapore Airlines #SingaporeGP 2022 Preview. #Formula1