Chequered flag in FP2: Lando Norris just ahead of Charles Leclerc at Marina Bay circuit | 2024 Singapore GP. Lando Norris just ahead of Charles Leclerc in Singapore GP2.

One to one, back to square one. After finishing behind Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari in the first free practice session of the Singapore Grand Prix, McLaren turned the tables in the second and final practice session on Friday.

On the track illuminated by the stunning lighting system that allows for nighttime racing, Lando Norris set the fastest time of the session during the qualifying simulation with a lap of 1’30″727, a time even faster than last year’s pole position on Saturday.

Norris’ time, achieved on Soft tires, was closely matched only by Leclerc, who was just 58 thousandths of a second slower than the McLaren driver. All other drivers, starting with Carlos Sainz in third, were more than six-tenths behind.

In short, Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc already seem to have found a good rhythm with the track. However, while Norris tested the Soft tires as a possible compound for the first race stint, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz focused on the Medium and Hard compounds, seeking numerical data to be better prepared for the race, especially regarding the durability and performance of the two harder compounds.

For this reason, it’s difficult to compare the race pace of the two cars, which currently appear to be the most competitive, and seem poised to fight for pole and victory. Everything is postponed to tomorrow morning, though, when the final practice session will take place in daylight and slightly higher temperatures compared to the afternoon qualifying.

The surprise of the day is undoubtedly Racing Bulls. Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo finished fourth and sixth respectively, with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in between them. The VCARB01 cars feature a special livery to celebrate one of their sponsors, leading to speculation that they may have used a more aggressive engine mapping for this important occasion. However, we’ll have confirmation of this assumption only tomorrow.

After a promising mid-summer, McLaren seems to have once again established itself as the fourth-best team of the season, though with a significant gap from the top three teams. George Russell, in seventh place, was over seven-tenths behind Norris, while Lewis Hamilton could do no better than 11th, nearly a full second off the pace.

While Mercedes’ struggles are noteworthy, even more significant are the issues Red Bull seems to be facing. Sergio Perez finished eighth, 871 thousandths behind Norris, while Max Verstappen was down in 15th, 1.3 seconds off. The RB20 cars are struggling to adapt to the bumps on the track and appear to be much more unstable, still searching for a setup that was already far from perfect in Baku.

If this situation continues into tomorrow, Max Verstappen might start to seriously worry about the Drivers’ Championship, even though there are fewer and fewer races left in the season.

Alexander Albon confirms Williams’ strong progress with a ninth-place finish, just 52 thousandths behind the first Red Bull, driven by Perez. After a good morning session, Franco Colapinto ended up 16th. The top 10 was completed by the Haas VF-24 of Nico Hulkenberg. The German, just 17 thousandths slower than Albon, finished ahead of the aforementioned Hamilton in the second Mercedes, as well as the two Aston Martin AMR24s of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, and the sister car of Kevin Magnussen.

At the bottom of the standings were the two Alpines, with Esteban Ocon in 17th and Pierre Gasly in 18th. Bringing up the rear was Sauber, with GuanYu Zhou in 19th, finishing nearly half a second ahead of a Valtteri Bottas who is becoming an increasingly distant shadow of the driver seen with Williams and Mercedes.

Here are the results from F1 practice for the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix: