Lando Norris of McLaren beat Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz of Ferrari recorded the fastest time. It was the best possible start for the Englishman Norris, who currently sits 59 points behind Verstappen at the top of the drivers’ standings. The second practice is critical for the teams since it is the only one conducted in Singapore with nighttime conditions comparable to the race on the 4.94-kilometer Marina Bay Circuit.
Norris remarked, “I felt like I got a lot out of Friday,” during the discussion. “A good start to the weekend and if we can keep it up I’ll be happy.” Three-time world champion Norris’s quickest lap of one minute, 30.727 seconds, was well behind the Dutchman by a whopping 1.294 seconds.
“It was a challenging day. We felt like we were sliding a lot more than normal because we didn’t have the grip we would have wanted on the tires,” Verstappen said. Verstappen also had a rough day off the track when stewards penalized him earlier for using profanity at the drivers’ news conference.
After leading the first session, Leclerc’s time of 1:30.785 was only 0.058 seconds behind Norris’s, while Sainz—who won in Singapore a year ago—was over six-tenths behind his teammate. Leclerc, a Monegasque, stated, “We still have work to do to get it to feel exactly how I want it to.” “We have to find the right balance and put it all together in qualifying tomorrow.”
After winning the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku the previous weekend, Oscar Piastri’s second McLaren was fourth, followed by Yuki Tsunoda in a much-improved RB. Sixth was Daniel Ricciardo’s second RB. The top ten on the timesheets were completed by Nico Hulkenberg’s Haas, George Russell’s Mercedes, Sergio Perez’s Red Bull, and Alex Albon’s Williams. “Seems to be ineffective.”
Near the conclusion of the practice, at turn eight, Russell collided with a wall and only just made it back to the pits, his front wing lodged in the barrier. Despite having won four times in Singapore previously, teammate Lewis Hamilton, a seven-time world champion, was well below the pace on Friday.
“We won’t be going into Q3 at this time,” Hamilton stated after finishing 11th, 0.982 seconds behind Norris. In a strong season, Red Bull’s solitary race loss last year occurred in Singapore.
After losing to McLaren at the top of the constructors’ standings, they made a comeback 12 months later20 points ahead. After falling behind McLaren in the constructors’ rankings, they made a comeback a year later.
Verstappen has not won a Grand Prix in seven attempts while Mercedes, McLaren, and Ferrari have all claimed the victory. Given that he has never won at the unpredictable city center track, it seemed unlikely that his luck would change there.
As several teams, including Red Bull, questioned the legality of their contentious rear wing, McLaren said on Friday that they would change it. The wing, which some spectators termed a “mini-DRS (drag reduction system)” when the film showed it moving at a fast speed, was deemed acceptable and didn’t require any adjustments, according to the governing body, the FIA.