@Max33Verstappen pips #Vettel in opening practice. #SingaporeGP #F1
Max Verstappen, #33, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda, RB15, Formula 1 Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix, Marina Bay Street Circuit, Marina Bay, Singapore. Image credit to LAT/Sutton Images.
Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen pipped Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel to go fastest in opening practice at the Singapore Grand Prix as Valtteri Bottas crashed.
Verstappen used the red-branded C5 Pirelli P Zero Soft compounds to knock Vettel off the top of the time-sheets with a 1:40.259 benchmark to pip the Ferrari driver by 0.167 seconds.
Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport’s Lewis Hamilton set the early pace in the opening 40 minutes when drivers were running their first sets of rubber, as the Briton set a 1:41.469 to go quickest by 0.469 seconds.
During this stage of the hour and a half long session, Racing Point’s Lance Stroll was third fastest and just in-front of Mercedes’ Bottas, who snagged the wall on his earlier run and damaged the rim of his F1 W10 EQ Power+ racer – limiting the Finn to just three laps.
This meant Bottas was the first to emerge on his second set of tyres, using the harder rubber to firstly move up to second then improved to first.
Mercedes team-mate Hamilton then came out, also on hards, making short work of the Finn’s time by six tenths of a second to make it a Silver Arrow one-two.
But Ferrari were still yet to post a quick time, with Vettel and Charles Leclerc on fresh softs, as the former took top spot with a 1:40.426.
Leclerc struck trouble before he could post a quick lap due to a gearbox issue, which clunked out at turn 19 and caused the back-to-back Belgian and Italian Grand Prix winner to slowly coast back to pit-lane – where his SF90 racer was retrieved by the Ferrari crew and the Monegasque youngster did not return to the track.
Verstappen then improved to claim top spot with a 1:40.259, shortly before Bottas crashed and caused a ten minute red flag.
The rear of Bottas’ F1 W10 EQ Power+ stepped out as he turned into the right hand corner, sending the Mercedes into the wall with the car sustaining heavy damage.
At this time, Bottas was relegated to fourth place behind team-mate Hamilton, with the other Honda-powered Red Bull RB15 racer of Alexander Albon taking fifth place and 1.208 seconds adrift of team-mate Verstappen’s benchmark.
Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg was best of the rest in sixth with his lap posted on softs before the red flag.
The McLaren duo of Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris’ runs were delayed by the red flag, but went out after the session restarted to set their best efforts with the former going seventh fastest and 1.746 seconds off of Verstappen.
Norris took eighth, but only after taking an off-excursion at the left-hand turn seven while on his initial flyer.
Toro Rosso occupied ninth and tenth spot on the time-sheets respectively with Daniil Kvyat ahead of team-mate Pierre Gasly.
Gasly on his third weekend since returning to the Faenza-based outfit, was just 0.072 seconds off of Kvyat as the young-Frenchman took tenth and was a tenth and a half quicker than Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo.
Ricciardo was 11th quickest and in-front of Haas F1 Team’s newly re-signed for 2020 driver in Romain Grosjean who ended FP1 in 12th place.
Alfa Romeo Racing’s Antonio Giovinazzi was forced to run his hot lap after the red flag hit, as the Italian moved to 13th and wound up 2.418 seconds adrift of top runner Verstappen.
The other Alfa Romeo Racing C38 of Kimi Raikkonen ended opening practice in 15th behind his aforementioned team-mate.
Stroll fell to 15th by session’s end having not improved on his initial posted effort having switched to the harder rubber, putting the Canadian over three tenths ahead of Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen who took 16th – with the latter reporting a brakes issue early on.
ROKiT Williams Racing’s Robert Kubica who announced yesterday that he will not continue with the Grove-based squad next year, ended FP1 in 17th place and ahead of Racing Point’s 18th-placed Sergio Perez.
The aforementioned Leclerc finished in 19th and ahead of the other Mercedes-powered Williams FW42 of George Russell who brought up the rear.
You can read the full Formula 1 Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix Free Practice 1 Results Classification at the link:
https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2019/races/1014/singapore/practice-1.html
You can also catch up on this weekend’s race preview at the link:
