After a three-year wait, Formula 1 is back in Singapore for another edition of the sport’s spectacular night race!
We had a green light at the end of the pit lane and Formula 1 was therefore officially back in Singapore, with the first free practice session at the Marina Bay Street Circuit. Zhou Guanyu was the first car out, with several others following behind him.
We were less than five minutes into this Practice session but Charles Leclerc was already reporting problems back to the Ferrari garage: “Are the brakes good? I think there is something wrong.” – the Monegasque driver said over the team radio, just as Max Verstappen set his first time of the weekend and went fastest first up with a 1:47.329.
Alex Albon was bravely returning to the track less than three weeks after complications during surgery for appendicitis left him an induced coma. With Singapore being the toughest track of the season physically for drivers, it remains to be seen whether he’ll be able to make it through the full weekend.
After reporting an issue with his brakes on the radio earlier, Charles Leclerc was back in the Ferrari garage with a human wall hiding the work being done.
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Fernando Alonso seemed to be enjoying himself in Singapore as only the two Red Bulls were faster than the two-time World Champion in the first part of the free practice session at the Marina Bay Street Circuit. His Alpine team-mate Esteban Ocon is running in seventh at that stage, while the Ferrari Monegasque driver is forced to watch on from the garage during the first 20 minutes of FP1.
Ferrari appeared to have fixed Charles Leclerc’s problem and the Monegasque was back out on track, without too much time having been lost. His first timed lap of the day as a 1:47.623, which is only good enough for 12th.
With 20 minutes until the end of FP1, Lance Stroll clipped the wall with his rear left tyre after getting the back end out and he was eventually forced to park up on the track after trying to nurse his Aston Martin back to the pits: “Go straight and stop the car,” he was told over the radio, as we had the first Red Flag moment of the Singapore weekend.
The session was back under way and there were just over 13 minutes of FP1 remaining. There was a close one for Carlos Sainz, as the Ferrari driver was heading into the final corner he lost some control of his F1-75 car but managed at the last moment to stop it from heading straight into the barrier in the most spectacular of saves.
Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton put in a great 1:43.033 lap on the soft tyre with five minutes of FP1 remaining to go on top. After Hamilton went fastest, Max Vertsappen returned for a quick lap but had to pull out at Turn 16 after overshooting the corner in a similar sight to George Russell at the beginning of this session.
That was the first session of the weekend completed in Singapore and it was Hamilton who ended up fastest in FP1 for the first time in the 2022 Formula One season, with a 1:43.033s. Max Verstappen finished just +0.084s behind the Mercedes with Charles Leclerc +0.402s behind in third for Scuderia Ferrari, in a rather difficult start of the weekend for the Maranello team, who also decided not to bring the new floor version at the Marina Bay Street Circuit. Carlos Sainz finished the first free practice session in sixth place.
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