Ricciardo sets early pace at Singapore

F1 Grand Prix, GP Singapore, Marina Bay Street Circuit

Red Bull Racing and Ferrari immediately put the pressure on Mercedes in the first practice session at Singapore, pushing the fastest Mercdes of Lewis Hamilton down into 4th. The result confirms Mercedes' earlier claims that Singapore is unlikely to be their strongest event.

As earlier races in the season have shown, Ferrari and Red Bull are more able to put the pressure on the Silver Arrows when it comes to high downforce tracks. This showed as Daniel Ricciardo topped the first session at Marina Bay, ahead of Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen.

While the three fastest men were closely matched, Lewis Hamilton was more than 4 tenths down while fifth fastest Perez nearly a second down on the pace setting Red Bull.

Valtteri Bottas followed up in 6th, ahead of Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen. Fernando Alonso, Nico hulkenberg and Daniil Kvyat completed the top 10.

The time of the session however makes it one of the least relevant of the weekend, as at was run at dusk, while qualifying and the race are set to be run later in the evening, hence most likely featuring cooler conditions.