From the order of the team garages in the Marina Bay pit lane to the look of the cars inside them and even the drivers who occupy those cars, a lot has changed in Formula 1 since the last time the Singapore Grand Prix was held back in 2019.
Three years ago, Lewis Hamilton was on his way to a sixth drivers’ world title in one of his most dominant championship victories of his career, while Sebastian Vettel claimed his 53rd and likely final grand prix victory.
While the layout of the five-kilometre circuit remains the same, many of the roads that form it have recently been relaid for Singapore’s 13th world championship grand prix. This fresh surface could play a crucial role in Saturday’s qualifying.
Max Verstappen has never taken a pole position, win or fastest lap at Singapore, but he arrived at the street circuit the overwhelming favourite on the back of a five-race winning streak. But as Friday’s running came to an end, the man who needs a victory on Sunday to have a chance of clinching his second title with five rounds to spare had to settle for fourth in the timings after just a single late flying lap on soft tyres.
Despite being over three tenths of a second down on pace-setter Carlos Sainz Jnr, over a tenth from Charles Leclerc and trailing George Russell’s Mercedes too, Verstappen was typically unruffled.
“I think it started off quite well in FP1,” Verstappen said. “The car was working quite well.
“Then for FP2, we wanted to try a few things, but they just took a bit longer to change, first of all. And then we wanted to try something else and again that took quite a long time to learn to change again. So we couldn’t really run a lot. That’s why I think it’s not really representative what we showed in FP2. Of course there’s still a lot of room for improvement. But it’s not the worst thing.”
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It’s been a difficult few months for Ferrari, who have seen their slim hopes of a championship fightback over the second phase of the season wilt away even further with every weekend that passes. But after securing a home pole position at Monza, Ferrari’s single-lap pace on Friday gave Sainz and Leclerc confidence they should be able to fight for the top spot on the grid again on Saturday.
“We still need to do some work and find some lap time, especially for the long runs,” said Sainz….
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