SINGAPORE GP – Lando Norris fastest by half a second in third practice
Lando Norris was fastest in third practice for the Singapore Grand Prix the McLaren driver set a 29.546 which put him nearly half a second faster than George Russell, while his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri three tenths behind the Mercedes. The Englishman looked to be in a league of his own.
Norris was the only driver to break the ninety-second mark, while his fellow Englishman showed much better pace for Mercedes than on Friday, as Piastri was slightly further behind. It wasn’t only Mercedes who looked better Max Verstappen put his Red Bull fourth two hundredths ahead of both Ferrari’s.
Mercedes said after the session that the car was in a “much better window” after engineers “turned the car upside down, literally” with set-up changes.
The only red flag of the session came out because of a lizard on track running through the final sector, this proved to be eventful as a marshal spent five minutes trying to capture it.
Verstappen, who leads Norris by a reduced margin of fifty-nine points in the Drivers’ Championship, was an improved fourth but almost nine-tenths off his title rival’s storming pace. After struggling once more with their car on Friday on a track they toiled at last year, Red Bull had looked better in the earlier running on the medium tyres after apparent changes to the RB20’s suspension overnight to aid its ride over the kerbs.
But the car’s pace was then absolutely not there again relative to Norris when the field switched to the softer compound for the low-fuel simulations, which will be a concern for the business end of qualifying after a series of disappointing weekends for the under-pressure reigning champions. Sergio Perez only going fifteenth fastest a second and seven-tenths off.
Ferrari look to have taken a step backwards with Charles Leclerc unable to show the pace he did on Friday, the Monacan going half a tenth faster than his teammate Carlos Sainz. Leclerc reported a lack of grip on his Ferrari which lead to him
Lewis Hamilton put his Mercedes seventh ahead of both Williams with Alex Albon four hundredths ahead of his teammate Franco Colapinto. Williams have looked competitive a similar high speed circuit last weekend in Baku, while Colapinto was nearly a tenth ahead of Fernando Alonso.
Yuki Tsunoda missed out on the top ten by three hundredths as he went ahead of both the Haas, with Nico Hulkenberg almost seven hundredths ahead of Kevin Magnussen. Pierre Gasly was seven hundredths ahead of Perez as the Red Bull split the Alpine’s as he went just over a tenth ahead of Esteban Ocon.
Daniel Ricciardo was seventeenth going comfortably ahead of Lance Stroll as the two Sauber’s completed the field, Valtteri Bottas was just over half a second faster than teammate Guanyu Zhou.