#SingaporeGP FP2: @Carlossainz55 heads @ScuderiaFerrari one-two. #F1

Sainz Singapore GP FP2 – Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz topped the time-sheets ahead of team-mate Charles Leclerc in FP2 at the Singapore GP as Mercedes’ George Russell rounded out the top three.

Sainz posted the benchmark of a 1:42.587 on the C5 red side-walled softer rubber and was 0.208 seconds quicker than team-mate Leclerc with Russell a further 0.324 seconds adrift of the Ferrari driver in third.

At the beginning of Free Practice 2, the only representative session comparable to qualifying and the race due to it’s night time start, Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas was the first to hit the Marina Bay Street Circuit as the early runners toured round on the medium and harder compounds.

Bottas registered the initial benchmark with a 1:45.839 on the mediums, before he was demoted back by Mercedes duo Russell, then Sir Lewis Hamilton, who completed his first hot-lap on a 1:44.091.

Russell remained at the top of the pile until the end of the opening ten minutes, the Mercedes driver’s first stint including an off-track moment at the turn 11 rapid right-hander, which leads onto the Anderson Bridge at the bottom end of the Marina Bay Street Circuit.

He managed to get his F1 W13 racer stopped, but only just before the barrier then reversing and continued on his way.

Sainz then took over in P1 with a 1:43.710 – also on the C4 yellow-marked mediums and running with the Mercedes duo – Hamilton moved back in-front on a 1:43.668 effort a few minutes later.

At the end of the hour-long practice session’s first quarter, Sainz jumped back at the top of the time-sheets posting a 1:43.237 which stood as the top medium tyre benchmark for the next part of proceedings.

At this point, the championship leaders were having an unusual session, as Verstappen and Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez, and Leclerc, yet to set a time.

Red Bull was working on both of it’s Honda-powered RB18 entries, whilst Ferrari re-attached Leclerc’s floor, which meant they ran out of sync with the rest of the field when they emerged.

Perez was the first of the three to do so – immediately heading out to do the qualifying simulation run on the softs, which Bottas used at this phase just before the halfway point to move up the classification to sit second behind Sainz’s effort on the mediums.

On his initial flying tour, Perez suffered a massive slide exiting the long turn five right that feeds onto the circuit’s long straight and lost more time in the final two sectors to wound up almost 1.5 seconds adrift behind the leading time on the harder tyres.

A few moments later – Sainz completed Ferrari’s first soft flyer – improving his P1 benchmark effort setting a 1:42.751.

This came despite the Spaniard touching the wall exiting the 90-degree right hand corner of turn 19, which follows the brief sub-terrain section of the circuit that runs underneath the grandstand overlooking the short sprint between turns 17 and 18, which Perez and Alpine F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon also did on their initial qualifying simulation stints.

Ocon’s effort was good enough for third at this time despite the wall hit, with Leclerc at that moment taking to the track.

He did so on the C4 yellow-branded medium tyres and completed a long stint, which featured a string of personal best laps – the first of which was 0.1 seconds adrift than his Ferrari team-mate’s session leading effort on the mediums.

As Leclerc continued to tour the Marina Bay Street Circuit and improved on his personal best, Sainz went again on the softs

With just over 20 minutes left on the clock remaining, Sainz improved on his benchmark with a 1:42.587, with Leclerc, by this phase running in the other F1-75’s wake, moving into second place and 0.295 seconds off and on his scrub set of mediums.

This relegated Russell to third and Hamilton to fourth – the Silver Arrows pairing having completed their qualifying simulation tours on the softs, which featured quick opening sectors before they lost time to Sainz as the flyers went on.

Perez had three more shots on the softs during the later FP2 stage that usually sees the teams running longer race run data gathering.

The Mexican’s second effort was unable to close the gap to Sainz, but on his third go, he matched the Ferrari driver’s sector one time before losing a heap of time then backing off and returning to the pits.

At this point, Verstappen came out for a small run on the C3 white side-walled hards before returning back to the Red Bull garage for another long sting of setup adjustments, which meant the Dutchman was in 15th heading into the final quarter.

It was clear that the current points leader Verstappen, Perez, or Leclerc were unable to do the long race data run gathering and indeed they were set on the qualifying simulation runs for the end – finishing with a total of eight, 12 and 13 tours respectively.

Leclerc went first on the softer rubber and was almost 0.2 seconds up on Ferrari team-mate Sainz in sector one before dropping back level to the Spaniard’s best effort after completing sector two and eventually ending up 0.208 seconds off in second place.

With four minutes remaining, Verstappen went even quicker in sector one to lead Sainz by 0.2 seconds.

But the reigning world champion also fell back at the end of the middle segment and lost a heap of time in sector three – 0.324 seconds adrift in third – which meant Verstappen placed fourth in the order.

This relegated Hamilton and Ocon to fifth and sixth respectively, as Bottas and Alpine’s Fernando Alonso seventh and eighth as the aforementioned Perez followed in ninth.

Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll completed the top ten in a session, which as usually on the tricky circuit, saw a raft of lock-ups and running down the escape roads – but no one hit the walls to cause any stoppages.

McLaren’s Lando Norris placed outside the top ten in 11th place and ahead of Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel who was 12th, Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen who came 13th in the order and AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly who took 14th.

Gasly’s moment was the most dramatic of FP2 with the Frenchman having to swiftly leap from his AT03 racer when being wheeled back into his garage as flames erupted from the car’s airbox – this happened with 15 minutes remaining – with the fire rapidly extinguished just as Gasly jumped out of his cockpit.

Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu ended the day 15th and in-front of Williams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi who was 16th and AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda who finished FP2 in 17th.

McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo took a low 18th and ahead of Haas F1 Team’s Mick Schumacher 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 2 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2022/races/1133/singapore/practice-2.html

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

#F1 Singapore Airlines #SingaporeGP 2022 Preview. #Formula1