Carlos Sainz reacts to Ferrari’s positive Friday practice: “Ideal performance window from the first lap”. Carlos Sainz reacts to Ferrari's positive Friday practice.

Ferrari surprise
The first day of the Singapore Grand Prix brought surprises, especially regarding the pace demonstrated by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz in the two Friday practice sessions. On a circuit theoretically unfavorable to the characteristics of the SF-23 due to the high aerodynamic load that doesn’t favor the qualities of the ‘Red’ (unlike Monza), the Prancing Horse took everyone by surprise on the Marina Bay city track, achieving a double top position in both sessions.

Charles Leclerc vs Carlos Sainz: The Spanish Driver Shines in the second practice session
While in FP1, the fastest time had Charles Leclerc’s signature, who was only 78 thousandths of a second faster than his teammate, the roles were reversed in the subsequent session. In this case, the author of the fastest time was Carlos Sainz, with an even smaller gap between the two drivers: just 18 thousandths. The Spanish driver stopped the clock at 1:32.120, completing the performance on soft tires and covering a total of 25 laps.

Strong from the First Lap
Carlos Sainz, coming off his third place finish in Monza, didn’t want to make any predictions for tomorrow’s qualifying but expressed his satisfaction during the night in Singapore: “A positive Friday,” he said. “The car seemed to be operating in the right performance window from the first lap of the first session, so in the second session, we were able to further fine-tune the setup. I expect the track to improve even more tomorrow, with even more grip. We will see in those conditions how much we can improve and what our competitors will be able to do.”