Leclerc leads in Singapore as Lizards litter FP1
15th September 2023Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc set the pace in the Asian city-state of Singapore, continuing their form from Monza, ahead of fellow teammate Carlos Sainz and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
The European leg of the 2023 campaign is now done and dusted and the sport has travelled across the world to Maritime Southeast Asia for the Singapore Grand Prix.
It was a mix of tyre compounds for the teams and drivers in their first stints, some on the white-walled hard tyres and some on the yellow-ringed medium compounds. McLaren’s Lando Norris was on the latter compound as he set the pace in the first half an hour in his new ‘stealth mode’ MCL60.
By the halfway mark, the session was peppered with intermittent yellow flags. No cars retired from the session nor did drivers make any mistakes in the early stages, the yellow flags were for the Lizards which crossed the track at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.
Despite the Lizards, Leclerc jumped to the top of the timing boards with a 1:33.350 lap on the red-walled soft compound tyres, the softest of the Pirelli range. Sainz and Verstappen sat just behind them within a single tenth behind.
Norris and Hamilton rounded out the top five in fourth and fifth respectively.
In the lower end of the top 10, Mercedes’ George Russell sat in sixth ahead of Red Bull’s Sergio Perez in seventh. Red Bull will hope they can bolster their performance over the weekend, to increase their chances of securing the constructors championship on Sunday.
Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), Yuki Tsunoda (Alpha Tauri) and Esteban Ocon (Alpine) occupied eighth, ninth and 10th, to round out the top 10 – all within seven-tenths of Leclerc’s time.
Alonso’s teammate, Lance Stroll led the bottom 10 as the first driver to trail Leclerc time by over a second in 11th. The Canadian was quickly followed by Pierre Gasly (Alpine), Alexander Albon (Williams), Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo) and Kevin Magnussen (Haas), in 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th subsequently.
Alpha Tauri’s Liam Lawson (16th) joined the likes of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri (19th) and Williams’ Logan Sargeant (20th) with their debut appearances in Singapore. Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg and Zhou Gunayu filled in the remaining places in the bottom five, in 17th and 18th respectively with the latter two seconds off the pace.
That’s all for the article: Leclerc leads in Singapore as Lizards litter FP1!
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
