Follow F1i's live coverage of the final practice session for the Singapore Grand Prix from the Marina Bay Street Circuit.

This weekend we're under the floodlights for a little night racing in the sweltering heat of Singapore, for a race that could prove crucial to the 2016 Formula One world championship.

After back-to-back wins in Spa and Monza, Nico Rosberg is on a roll and has cut his Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton's lead in the title battle to just two points. Can Hamilton get the upper hand again this weekend, or will Rosberg take back control of the championship?

Rosberg ended Friday's practice sessions on top with the fastest lap of the day, albeit only by 0.275s from Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen; the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo were also well within half a second of Rosberg's time, which is not perhaps the sort of advantage that Mercedes might have been hoping for at the end of the day. Last year, Singapore was the scene for the team's only slump in form of the entire season so it wouldn't surprise us if they were feeling just a little nervous about their prospects going into today's crucial practice and qualifying sessions.

Rosberg also had an embarrassing mishap in FP1 when he locked up and went into the barriers. Fortunately it did no lasting damage to the car, and in FP2 it was Hamilton who suffered a setback when his car experienced a hydraulic issue that left him sidelined for the final half hour. Together with some odd overheating problems it's not the way Hamilton would have wanted in the build-up to his race weekend.

Still, Hamilton's day didn't go as badly as Romain Grosjean's did. His Haas suffered a power unit issue in the morning and then a spin in the afternoon that resulted in damage to the rear wing and suspension, meaning that he had only four laps of running in total for the entire day. His team mate Esteban Gutierrez was also suffering from understeer issues, so it looks like Formula One's newest team has had a lot of problems to sort out overnight.

It wasn't a great day for McLaren either - Jenson Button's car crawled to a halt on its shakedown lap at the start of FP1, and in the afternoon Fernando Alonso ended FP2 with a gearbox failure. The team appears confident that neither driver will go into today's sessions with any sort of handicap.

Final practice gets underway at 18:00 local time (11am BST) which means the sun will still be out for the first half hour of the session or so, the floodlights gradually taking over as dusk fully takes hold. As you'd doubtless expect, you can follow everything that happens in FP3 the minute that it happens with F1i's live commentary page. You can even submit your questions and comments which we'll try and answer during the hour.

FP2 REPORT: Rosberg heads Raikkonen, reliability woes for Hamilton

Silbermann says ... Not so sleepy in Singapore

Romain Grosjean column: Drivers have a certain shelf life

Chris Medland's 2016 Singapore Grand Prix preview

TECHNICAL: Under the skin of the Red Bull RB12

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

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.

Recent Posts

Aston Martin says performance shortfall led to Fallows exit

Aston Martin performance director Tom McCullough has shed some light on why the team’s former…

8 hours ago

FIA clamps down on plank loophole after Red Bull complaint

The FIA has issued a pivotal Technical Directive to F1 teams ahead of this weekend’s…

10 hours ago

F1 drivers blindsided by race director Wittich’s sudden exit

The abrupt removal last week of FIA race director Niels Wittich with just three races…

11 hours ago

McLaren relaxes ‘papaya rules’: Norris and Piastri free to race

Oscar Piastri has confirmed that McLaren’s team orders—dubbed the "Papaya Rules"—have been largely relaxed, giving…

12 hours ago

Cheers to the forever young pure racer Jacques Laffite

The forever young Jacques Laffite turns 81 today, but the years haven't aged this pure…

13 hours ago

Las Vegas GP: Wednesday's build-up in pictures

The neon lights of Las Vegas are set to illuminate the Formula 1 world once…

14 hours ago