Sainz heads Ferrari one-two in second Singapore practice

The two Ferraris of Carlos Sainz Jnr and Charles Leclerc were fastest in the second Friday practice session for the Singapore Grand Prix.

Sainz’s best time of a 1’42.587 was two tenths of a second quicker than his team mate, with George Russell a further tenth behind, just ahead of Max Verstappen.

Despite the sun having set between the end of first practice and the start of the second session, the temperatures had hardly changed by the time the second hour of practice got underway around the Marina Bay street circuit.

After being quickest in the opening session, Lewis Hamilton set the early benchmark of a 1’44.091 on medium tyres, half a second ahead of Fernando Alonso and George Russell in the other Mercedes. Russell, who gently nudged the barrier at turn 12 in the opening practice session, almost committed the same mistake in the early minutes, but managed to avoid contact with the wall.

Max Verstappen remained in the garage for the first third of the session, with Red Bull working on the front of his car. Pierre Gasly brought out the yellow flags briefly when he overshot the entrance of turn 18, but managed to reverse out and continue.

Sainz improved to go quickest of all on the medium tyres, then went even faster on the soft tyres, setting a 1’42.587. After not venturing out of the garage for over half of the session, Leclerc went second quickest on the soft tyres, two tenths slower.

Gasly had a scare in the pit lane when flames suddenly erupted from the airbox of his AlphaTauri after he made a seemingly routine return to the garage. A small fire burst from the air intake on top of the car as Gasly was being wheeled back into the garage, but was quickly extinguished by fast-acting Aston Martin mechanics in the adjacent garage. Gasly was eventually sent back out after AlphaTauri assessed the car.

In the second half of the session, teams focused more on long run pace, with the two Ferraris remaining at the top of the times. In the final minutes, Verstappen took to the track on soft tyres, moving to fourth fastest, three tenths slower than Sainz’s best time. With no further improvements at the front of the field, the chequered flag flew with Sainz ending Friday as the fastest driver, two tenths ahead of team mate Leclerc.

Russell was third fastest for Mercedes, ahead of Verstappen and team mate Lewis Hamilton. Esteban Ocon and Valtteri Bottas were sixth and seventh, with Alonso, Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll completing the top ten.

2022 Singapore Grand Prix second practice result

Position	Number	Driver	Team	Model	Time	Gap	Laps
1	55	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Ferrari	F1-75	1’42.587		23
2	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	F1-75	1’42.795	0.208	14
3	63	George Russell	Mercedes	W13	1’42.911	0.324	26
4	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	RB18	1’42.926	0.339	8
5	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	W13	1’43.182	0.595	22
6	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	A522	1’43.412	0.825	23
7	77	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	C42	1’43.431	0.844	26
8	14	Fernando Alonso	Alpine-Renault	A522	1’43.520	0.933	23
9	11	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	RB18	1’43.906	1.319	13
10	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin-Mercedes	AMR22	1’43.982	1.395	21
11	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	MCL36	1’44.013	1.426	16
12	5	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin-Mercedes	AMR22	1’44.249	1.662	24
13	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	VF-22	1’44.422	1.835	22
14	10	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri-Red Bull	AT03	1’44.469	1.882	22
15	24	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	C42	1’44.524	1.937	25
16	23	Alexander Albon	Williams-Mercedes	FW44	1’45.144	2.557	25
17	22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri-Red Bull	AT03	1’45.211	2.624	11
18	3	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren-Mercedes	MCL36	1’45.447	2.860	18
19	47	Mick Schumacher	Haas-Ferrari	VF-22	1’45.623	3.036	23
20	6	Nicholas Latifi	Williams-Mercedes	FW44	1’46.553	3.966	25

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