Lando Norris was comfortably fastest in final practice at the Singapore Grand Prix, enjoying an advantage of nearly half a second over the field and nearly a second on most drivers.
McLaren’s form appears to be showing no sign of slowing down despite technical focus on its rear wing this weekend, and Norris was the only driver under the 1m30s mark as he posted a 1m29.646s. That left him 0.479s clear of George Russell, and almost 0.8s ahead of third-placed Oscar Piastri.
Max Verstappen was complaining about traffic early on but initially reported his car was much better to drive than on Friday, with Piastri providing similar feedback to McLaren, but both were unable to get anywhere near Norris on the soft tire later in the session. Verstappen was 0.894s off his main title rival, while Charles Leclerc was a further 0.019s adrift and the only other driver within a second of the fastest time.
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Leclerc had aborted his first attempt to set a time on the soft tire but could only go fifth overall when he then did complete a lap, and he complained of a lack of grip. Ferrari received some stern words from Leclerc about how slow the car was during the session, having been fastest on the medium compound tire early on.
Verstappen’s feedback also became slightly more critical as the session wore on, as he was struggling with rear end stability when turning into corners at full steering lock.
The session began with a lizard roaming around the track — an increasingly common occurrence during race weekends in Singapore — and after a few early laps from the Aston Martin drivers, race control decided to put out a red flag to allow it to be removed. That led to the slightly comical sight of a marshal chasing the lizard away from the pit lane exit, with the reptile showing an impressive turn of speed trying to escape.
It wouldn’t be Singapore without a lizard on track! 😁🦎#F1 #SingaporeGP pic.twitter.com/IsdVR2U0ok
— Formula 1 (@F1) September 21, 2024
When running resumed after the short delay, there were a few close moments as Pierre Gasly nearly found the wall out of Turn 11, while Russell went deep at Turn 8 and had to spin his car around in the run-off area to rejoin.
Drivers were dealing with lower grip conditions following heavy overnight rain, but there was also the added caveat of the session taking place before darkness falls. Qualifying and the race will both be held under the floodlights, when temperatures can drop.
Carlos Sainz ended up sixth overall ahead of Lewis Hamilton, with the Williams pair of Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto both inside the top 10, ahead of Fernando Alonso. It wasn’t a totally clean session for Albon though, as he clipped the inside wall at the high-speed kink numbered as Turn 15, potentially picking up some damage to a tire.
Sergio Perez struggled to put together a good lap on the softs and ended up 15th overall, some 1.8 seconds slower than Norris.
