F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Ricciardo stays in charge in Singapore night practice

Daniel Ricciardo continued to set the pace on Friday after the second 90-minute practice session ahead of this weekend's Singapore Grand Prix.

Full Results:

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:40.852s		33
2	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1:41.408s	+ 0.556s	28
3	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:41.555s	+ 0.703s	36
4	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1:42.104s	+ 1.252s	35
5	Nico Hülkenberg	Renault	1:42.448s	+ 1.596s	33
6	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren	1:42.501s	+ 1.649s	34
7	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:42.788s	+ 1.936s	32
8	Sergio Pérez	Force India	1:42.826s	+ 1.974s	35
9	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:42.835s	+ 1.983s	30
10	Esteban Ocon	Force India	1:43.054s	+ 2.202s	34
11	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:43.104s	+ 2.252s	33
12	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso	1:43.236s	+ 2.384s	38
13	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	1:43.608s	+ 2.756s	32
14	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	1:43.795s	+ 2.943s	32
15	Felipe Massa	Williams	1:43.836s	+ 2.984s	32
16	Lance Stroll	Williams	1:44.301s	+ 3.449s	32
17	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	1:44.417s	+ 3.565s	32
18	Romain Grosjean	Haas	1:44.928s	+ 4.076s	29
19	Pascal Wehrlein	Sauber	1:45.673s	+ 4.821s	34
20	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:45.721s	+ 4.869s	35

New Ferrari-style bargeboards on the RB13 helped Ricciardo to a best lap time of 1:40.852s. It put him over half a second clear of team mate Max Verstappen in FP2. The Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas were next best, and Nico Hulkenberg showed impressive speed in the Renault to finish fifth fastest.

Just hours after announcing the end of their engine deal with Honda, McLaren will have been delighted to see Stoffel Vandoorne and Fernando Alonso running sixth and seventh. That put them ahead of Force India's Sergio Perez and Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, who had a close call on pit lane in the final half hour. Perez' team mate Esteban Ocon ended Friday in tenth place on the timesheets.

Second practice was the first session of the weekend to be held under Marina Bay's powerful floodlights. It meant that conditions were much closer to what drivers will face in qualifying and the race than had been the case in FP1. First on track were Carlos Sainz in the Toro Rosso and Kevin Magnussen in the Haas, both keen to catch up on track time after missing the earlier session in favour of development drivers Sean Gelael and Antonio Giovinazzi respectively.

Ten minutes into the session, Red Bull had already taken firm control of proceedings with a 1-2 for Verstappen and Ricciardo. Even on supersofts, the pair has broken the previous track record, with Verstappen's 1:42.077s just 0.089s ahead of his team mate.

Ricciardo tops FP1 as Red Bull leads the way

Ricciardo subsequently sliced over a second off his time when he switched to ultras. Verstappen also improved to keep himself ahead of Hamilton and Bottas. Ferrari meanwhile appeared happy to keep things relatively low-key, with both cars lingering at the bottom of the top ten.

Haas' Romain Grosjean was the first driver of the weekend to scuff the bright yellow wall after running wide at turn 21. He subsequently ent for a spin in turn 7. Renault's Jolyon Palmer also brushed the wall, as did Hamilton and Williams' Lance Stroll. Other drivers were similarly finding the limits of the track, with Sainz among those running wide and taking to an escape road.

Forty minutes in, Verstappen and Vettel individually reported that they had brushed the wall. In fact replays showed that in both cases it was more of a full-on clout. A brief virtual safety car was needed to allow marshalls to retrieve debris in the form of an advertising hoarding dislodged by Vettel at the exit of turn 10.

Ferrari mechanics gave Vettel's car a lengthy check for damage. By the time he returned to action, the focus of the session had turned to longer distance runs. As a result, Vettel remained off the pace and out of the top ten in 11th by the time the chequered flag came out. He had a last minute scare when he came upon Sainz reversing back on track after another escape road excursion at turn 18.

Magnussen had an early end the session after making heavy contact with the wall, damaging the wheel rims on the VF17. Grosjean was ordered to pit ten minutes from the finish with a telemetry issue. And Hulkenberg was also recalled to the pits in the final minutes with "a small issue on the car".

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.