There is a lot of curiosity about Singapore for the last session of free practice after yesterday which ended in the name of Ferrari in both sessions and with one Red Bull in trouble. The feeling is that Singapore is another track, like Monza, which enhances the qualities of an SF-23 who this year has hardly been able to express his best. But Let's see what happened in FP3, in an anomalous session due to time, temperature and track conditions and which ended with Lando Norris' best time.
Red Bull, small signs of recovery with Max but…
After the setback yesterday it's the dawn, or rather the sunset, of another day for Red Bull who immediately takes to the track in FP3. The team had to start from scratch given the rather disappointing results on Friday. Both Perez and Verstappen had complained about an unstable RB19, especially at the rear. We'll see if they managed to find a solution during the night. On the eve of the weekend Verstappen he had already expressed his doubts about the Singapore circuit and about a dominance that could be less obvious than other races. On the first flying lap the first positive signs already arrive, Verstappen in fact leads Sainz's Ferrari by 6 tenths.
The Austrian team worked tirelessly, deciding to take a step back regarding the new floor mounted yesterday. The street circuit is always a risk, given the roughness of the track. Aerodynamics pay less here and this is probably also why the RB19 seems to have lost that uniqueness that made it stand out from the others. Perez is the one who complained about the feeling with the car in this last test session too. which opens in a radio team saying “I keep slipping at the entrance to the curves”. The team asked him if there were any improvements.
Ferrari is always there. Mercedes also did well. Norris does well in McLaren.
At Ferrari the set-up works, the flying lap, important here given the difficulty in overtaking in Singapore, is very strong and for this reason the race is mainly prepared in the pits. Yesterday in the race simulations the Maranello team wasn't positioned that far from Red Bull, but there are still some doubts about the degradation. Difficult to understand with this session given the different time.
20 minutes into the session the first wave arrives Leclerc, who places ahead of his teammate by thousandths. Russell and Max take care of disturbing the two Reds and taking first place with the soft. However, the Englishman's leadership did not last long. The throne is taken away from him again Sainz with almost 2 and a half tenths of an advantage. 4, respect Verstappen.
Lots of fixes for drivers. Lawson ends up spinning, Albon ends up wide. With half an hour to go the top 5 sees Russell in the lead followed by Sainz, Verstappen, Leclerc and Hamilton. Mercedes used FP3 to prepare above all for qualifying. The best in the standings are Russell and Hamilton with the red. Aston Martin returns to no man's land with Alonso in tenth place and Stroll in fourteenth.
On the race pace simulation, despite not knowing the fuel loads, Ferrari gives excellent signals especially with Sainz, who is very constant in pace.
At McLaren it was decided to equip only Norris with the new parts - for a matter of timing, and the results seem to be visible. The Englishman takes the lead of the group with red tires fifteen minutes from the end of the session. His teammate, Oscar Piastri is in a disappointing fifteenth position. However, he makes up for it shortly afterwards with a second lap but with red tyre, but paying 4 tenths of a second from his teammate.
Qualifying simulations
With 10 minutes to go in FP3, as the sun goes down everyone launches into the qualifying simulation. The time to attack is that of Norris with 1:32.303. Max Verstappen fails to move beyond fourth place at the first attempt, three tenths behind Norris. Then comes Sainz who takes the lead again with a time of 1:32.065. Traffic in the central sector prevented Leclerc from completing the lap. On the second attempt he placed himself in fourth place, 3 tenths behind Sainz. Instead, Max Verstappen returns to the pits, highly disappointed with the performance of his car and the constant problems with shifting.
Sainz, Russell, Norris, Verstappen and Leclerc the final top 5 with Leclerc forced to lift his foot after a correction. The other Red Bull placed ninth. Hulkenberg and Tsunoda's Haas also enter the top 10. This concludes FP3. While waiting for the qualification, let's see all the times.
