Ricciardo stays ahead as Vettel slips up

Daniel Ricciardo maintained his advantage in the second practice session for the Singapore Grand Prix. Having set a new track record during the morning session he lowered it to 1’40.852, leaving him half a second clear of team mate Max Verstappen.

However an error by Sebastian Vettel meant Ferrari didn’t reveal their full potential. He set the quickest time in the first sector at one point but clipped the wall at turn ten and had to pit.

While all the other drivers set their quickest time on the ultras-soft tyres, Vettel did his on softs and ended the session outside the top ten.

The Mercedes pair got closest to the two Red Bulls but Lewis Hamilton was seven-tenths off Ricciardo’s benchmark. The top five was completed by Nico Hulkenberg, though the Renault driver had to pit before the end of the session with an unspecified problem.

The two McLarens were next, Singapore newcomer Stoffel Vandoorne ahead of Fernando Alonso, the latter being another of several drivers who brushed the wall during the 90 minutes.

Both Force Indias appeared in the top ten, separated by Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari. Carlos Sainz Jnr finished behind Vettel after twice going off into the turn 18 run-off.

Romain Grosjean endured a troubled session which included a couple of spins. He ended up 18th ahead of the two Saubers.

Pos.	No.	Driver	Car	Best lap	Gap	Laps
1	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull-TAG Heuer	1’40.852		33
2	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull-TAG Heuer	1’41.408	0.556	28
3	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1’41.555	0.703	36
4	77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1’42.104	1.252	35
5	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	1’42.448	1.596	33
6	2	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren-Honda	1’42.501	1.649	34
7	14	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Honda	1’42.788	1.936	32
8	11	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	1’42.826	1.974	35
9	7	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1’42.835	1.983	30
10	31	Esteban Ocon	Force India-Mercedes	1’43.054	2.202	34
11	5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1’43.104	2.252	33
12	55	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Toro Rosso-Renault	1’43.236	2.384	38
13	26	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso-Renault	1’43.608	2.756	32
14	30	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	1’43.795	2.943	32
15	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	1’43.836	2.984	32
16	18	Lance Stroll	Williams-Mercedes	1’44.301	3.449	32
17	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	1’44.417	3.565	32
18	8	Romain Grosjean	Haas-Ferrari	1’44.928	4.076	29
19	94	Pascal Wehrlein	Sauber-Ferrari	1’45.673	4.821	34
20	9	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber-Ferrari	1’45.721	4.869	35

Second practice visual gaps

Daniel Ricciardo – 1’40.852

+0.556 Max Verstappen – 1’41.408

+0.703 Lewis Hamilton – 1’41.555

+1.252 Valtteri Bottas – 1’42.104

+1.596 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’42.448

+1.649 Stoffel Vandoorne – 1’42.501

+1.936 Fernando Alonso – 1’42.788

+1.974 Sergio Perez – 1’42.826

+1.983 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’42.835

+2.202 Esteban Ocon – 1’43.054

+2.252 Sebastian Vettel – 1’43.104

+2.384 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’43.236

+2.756 Daniil Kvyat – 1’43.608

+2.943 Jolyon Palmer – 1’43.795

+2.984 Felipe Massa – 1’43.836

+3.449 Lance Stroll – 1’44.301

+3.565 Kevin Magnussen – 1’44.417

+4.076 Romain Grosjean – 1’44.928

+4.821 Pascal Wehrlein – 1’45.673

+4.869 Marcus Ericsson – 1’45.721

Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.

2017 Singapore Grand Prix

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2017 F1 practice sessions

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13 comments on “Ricciardo stays ahead as Vettel slips up”

Jere (@jerejj)
15th September 2017, 14:51

A 2-second improvement from FP1 to FP2. That’s a lot considering the usual standards from circuit to circuit.
1. hunocsi (@hunocsi)
  15th September 2017, 14:57
  
  Well spotted, the times are like day and night.
  1. Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
    15th September 2017, 15:00
    
    @jerejj @hunocsi It is a lot, but it’s typical for Singapore. It was actually a 1.6s gain which is the same as last year.
  2. Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
    15th September 2017, 15:01
    
    very good @hunocsi
magon4 (@magon4)
15th September 2017, 14:56

Helmut Marko just said on German TV that Dan Rickie was looking into going to Renault… he seemed really interested but decided to stay after all, so Sainz will be going.
1. ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
  15th September 2017, 15:18
  
  @magon4 and Autosport just report that Renault want RIC at first but settle with SAI. I believe on Marko more than Abiteboul.
Mashiat (@mashiat)
15th September 2017, 15:00

Red Bull looking strong, but then again, they did in Hungary as well and ended up 5th and 6th on the grid. Vettel will be hoping to win the race, with Raikkonen and the two Red Bulls getting ahead of Hamilton. The race may not be very exciting racing wise, but for some reason I always love watching races about Singapore; there’s just something very satisfying about seeing cars on the limit over the kerbs and bumps, and they look more on-the-limit than on any other racetrack (more so than Monaco imo)
1. Mashiat (@mashiat)
  15th September 2017, 15:06
  
  *races in Singapore.
Hugh (@hugh11)
15th September 2017, 15:07

Ferrari really not showing up thus far, especially not Raikkonen… Interesting.
1. Ju88sy (@)
  15th September 2017, 16:00
  
  @hugh11 FP2 long runs were a different story from the average lap times, Raikkonen was just a bit faster than Hamilton, and both away from the Red Bulls. Bottas was way off, he seems to be really struggling so far this weekend. I didn’t see the data for Vettel yet.
  1. Ju88sy (@)
    15th September 2017, 16:02
    
    I haven’t seen the data for Vettel yet. iOS auto correct on bad typing!
  2. anon
    15th September 2017, 18:04
    
    @ju88sy, from the initial reports, it seems as if Vettel was slightly slower than Hamilton during the race simulations as Vettel wasn’t entirely happy with the handling balance of his car following a few set up tweaks in FP2.
2. Todfod (@todfod)
  16th September 2017, 7:41
  
  @hugh11 I don’t think Raikonnen has shown up for this season