Sainz leads Ferrari 1-2 in the second practice at Singapore

Ferrari remained unbroken at the summit on Friday in Singapore thanks to Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc, who led a 1-2 in practice two.

Sainz turned up the heat on his teammate by topping the timesheets by just 0.018 seconds, which ensured Ferrari finished two tenths ahead of its closest rival.

Consequently, a lot of laps were clocked during the only practice session that was held in similar weather predicted for qualifying and the race. However, early on in the short Marina Bay Circuit, there was plenty of traffic building in the last sector.

With the exception of Alex Albon of Williams, a significant number of drivers were able to make representative laps on the Soft tyre.

The Williams driver, who will be attempting to finish in the points for a third time in a row on Sunday, reported a loss of power during the early stages and withdrew from the action.

Eventually, the Ferraris took the lead for the second time in a row when the qualifying simulations were done at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.

Nevertheless, Sainz maintained the lead this time even though Leclerc had a faster lap through the first two sectors. The Monegasque driver acknowledged that he had been delayed in the last sector by traffic.

Sainz’s record-breaking performance of 1:32.120 seconds was exactly 10 seconds faster than the greatest effort set at this time last year and 1.2 seconds faster than the benchmark time in FP1.

The Ferrari’s record lap was consistent with the pre-weekend prediction that the elimination of Turns 16–19 in favor of a single straight would result in a 10–second increase in lap times.

George Russell finished ahead of Lewis Hamilton as both Mercedes drivers ranked within the top five. Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso split the Mercedes duo after finishing fourth despite his teammate Lance Stroll finishing out of the top ten.

Lando Norris finished FP2 in sixth place, nine places ahead of teammate Oscar Piastri, who will get the fully upgraded MCL60 next weekend in Japan. Norris piloted the only fully upgraded McLaren car in its tweaked “Stealth Mode” livery design.

Red Bull faced a difficult evening session as reigning World Champion Max Verstappen could only finish eighth while his teammate Sergio Perez finished ahead of the Dutchman in seventh.

Kevin Magnussen finished ninth as Haas remains silent about its prospects for better performance until Austin, Texas, next month, when it will transition to the “downwash” sidepod concept.

However, Valtteri Bottas’ Alfa Romeo edged Nico Hulkenberg to the coveted final points scoring spot, denying the American team two berths in the top 10.

Having to fill in for Daniel Ricciardo, Liam Lawson was the fastest AlphaTauri, four positions ahead of teammate Yuki Tsunoda. Esteban Ocon, Stroll, and Piastri kept the AlphaTauri duo apart.

Guanyu Zhou, who recently learned he will remain with Alfa Romeo for the upcoming season, finished five tenths behind teammate Bottas.

Alpine’s Pierre Gasly had a dismal second practice, only outpacing the Williams drivers and finishing 0.5 seconds slower than the rest of the field.

2023 SINGAPORE GRAND PRIX FREE PRACTICE RESULTS 2