FP2: Piastri tops incident-filled second practice at Singapore
Championship leader Oscar Piastri led the way in the incident-filled second practice at the Singapore Grand Prix. F1Technical's senior writer Balazs Szabo reports on the second one-hour session at the Marina Bay Circuit.
After the incident-filled second practice at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, championship leader Oscar Piastri came out on top, having pumped in a time of 1m 30.714s.
Racing Bulls driver Isack Hadjar slotted his Racing Bulls into P2, just 0.132s behind Piastri. His team-mate Liam Lawson also looked quick, but the New-Zealander took only 17th after having hit the wall out of Turn 17. The incident resulted in his damaged Racing Bulls machine coming to a stop at the pit entry which triggered a fairly lengthy red-flag period.
Max Verstappen set the fourth quickest time, while Fernando Alonso, who led the way in the opening practice session, delivered another promising performance to end up fourth fastest for Aston Martin.
The Spaniard’s team mate Lance Stroll had a straightforward session, ending up not far behind in fifth. The Aston Martin duo was separated by Lando Norris who sounded somewhat frustrated with himself over the radio towards the end of the hour.
Esteban Ocon claimed an encouraging seventh place, with Carlos Sainz, who secured his first podium for Williams last time out at Baku, ended up eighth quickest.
The Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton looked very competitive on the mediums, but neither of them could extract the best performance on Pirelli's softs, and they ended up ninth and tenth quickest, respectively.
Red Bull's Yuki Tsunoda just missed out in P11, ahead of Haas’ Ollie Bearman, Alexande Albon. The Sauber duo of Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto suffered some hairy moments across the second hour of practice, taking 14th and 15th.
Pierre Gasly was 16th for Alpine while his team-mate Franco Colapinto took 19th. Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli looked quick across the practice session, but he was unable to put a lap together on the red-walled tyres, and finished down in P18.
George Russell finished last in the second hour of practice at Singapore. The Briton completed only six laps in FP2 after he hit the barriers at Turn 16. As a result of the incident, the Mercedes man picked up a front wing damage which first brought out the yellow flags before a red flag was thrown to recover the debris out on track.
