It was a hot and dry day for the F1 paddock at Singapore and it only got hotter as the best racing drivers in the world competed to go as fast as humanly possible round the Marina Bay circuit after a 3 week hiatus. The 2022 season, despite being a boring one as Verstappen could potentially win the title at Singapore, still gives us very intense and intriguing match-ups as you’d observe from the two Free Practice sessions. So, without any further delay, let’s head right into it.

Highlights from Free Practice 1

Lewis Hamilton found himself at the top position in the opening practice for the 2022 Singapore Grand Prix trailed by Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc  who finished at the second and third spots respectively. The  intense and highly awaited 2022 Singapore Grand Prix started on Friday 30th September with its practice rounds. The results of the practice are out with 7 time World champion Lewis Hamilton edging the victory from the preset favorite Max Verstappen. 

The race turned to be tough luck for Lance Stroll from Aston Martin who was red-flagged with 20 minutes to spare when he hit the barriers with the left side of his Aston at Turn 5. The car came to a half and jumped out in the Turn 7 run-area. He held the 8th position before the crash. Lewis Hamilton took the lead from Verstappen with just 5 minutes and as he ended the race on the top with a time of 1m 43.033s beating Verstappen’s time by 0.084s. Verstappen had overshot Turn 16 late in the session and set the early pace on mediums. The third position was bagged by Leclerc who missed Hamilton’s time by 0.402s. Verstappen’s fellow Red Bull driver Sergio Perez ended the race in fourth position, 0.806s off the pace. George Russell finished the race at the fifth position bagging Mercedes the second spot for Mercedes in the Top 5 leaving Carlos Sainz finishing 6th while struggling with his car’s balance. 

Esteban Ocon from Alpine finished at the seventh spot followed by Stroll at eighth who missed a chance to set a lap on soft tires due to his Turn 5 crash. Pierre Gasly bagged the ninth spot for Alpine with Fernando Alonso closing the top ten in the second Alpine. Fernando saw himself confined to the garage in the last 25 minutes because of a suspected gearbox oil leak. Sebastian Vettel of Aston Martin finished 11th trailed by Mcleran’s Daniel Ricciardo and Valterri Boltas at Number 13 for Alfa Romeo. Kevin Magnussen was the fastest driver from Haas at 14th ahead of Yuki Tsunoda in 15th for AlphaTauri. The sixteenth position was taken by Alex Albon, who missed the Italian Grand Prix due to appendicitis and suffered complications from the surgery for Williams. He was followed by Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu who used medium compounds to finish at 17th. 

Mick Schumacher finished 18th representing Haas while Lando Norris, took 19th while flaunting flo-vis paint on the right-side of his machine as McLaren invested in new sidepods and floor updates for Singapore. Nicholas Latifi rounded out the standings, at 20 drivers with hiss split with Hamilton being 4.059s.

Highlights from Free Practice 2

The second practice saw the Ferrari Drivers make a comeback with Carlos Sainz topping the timesheets in Friday’s second practice session for the Singapore Grand Prix, beating his Ferrari team mate Charles Leclerc in the Marina Bay Street Circuit. Carlos Sainz clocked the best timings of the day in the practice rounds as he beat Hamilton’s record of the first practice and finished the circuit on the soft tyre compound.

The second spot was also taken by Ferrari with Leclerc finishing at the second spot for them following Sainz more than two-tenths though he missed about half of the hour long session while Ferrari carried out changes and checks to his car following an FP1 hour impacted by brake issues. Max Verstappen also saw his running being limited by set-up changes and a late soft-shod run. He claimed the fourth spot by finishing around three-tenths off Sainz’s time. Mercedes was led in the second practice by George Russle at third position, while Lewis Hamilton fifth.It was not smooth sailing for either as Russell lamented an “awful” lap after a lock-up at Turn 13 and Hamilton encountered traffic.

The sixth spot was taken by Esteban Ocon of Alpine who edged out his Alfa Romeo counterpart Valtteri Bottas in P7 by the thinnest of margins and team mate Fernando Alonso in P8. Sergio Perez struggled to register a clean lap with the soft rubber representing Red Bull, finishing ninth, with Lance Stroll of Aston Martin driver recovering from his FP1 crash and rounding up the top 10. Lando Norris led McLarens to the P11 while Daniel Ricciardo could manage to finish at seven places below and was slower almost one-and-a-half seconds ahead – trailed by Sebastian Vettel from Aston Martin and Haas’ fastest driver Kevin Magnussen. 

AlphaTauri faced a set of issues with their cars in this session with Pierre Gasly finishing 14th after a fire broke out  on his engine air intake, while their other driver  Yuki Tsunoda at 17th had to end his  session early due to a fuel system issue. Williams driver Alex Albon continued his form from the last practice in which he was returning from, appendicitis impressive 16th, following the second Alfa Romeo driver Zhou Guanyu and ahead of Tsunoda. Mick Schumacher (Haas) and Nicholas Latifi (Williams) stood at the bottom of the list with the field covered by just under four seconds under the Marina Bay lights.