Before the Singapore GP

First practice in Singapore – LIVE from 11.30 a.m.

Lando Norris(Bild: AFP or licensors)

The motorsport royalty stops off at the Marina Bay Street Circuit. Carles Leclerc was the fastest man in the first free practice session in Singapore, Lando Norris in the second.

McLaren driver Lando Norris set the fastest practice time on Friday ahead of the Formula 1 race in Singapore. The British world championship runner-up relegated Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari to second place by a narrow margin (+0.058 seconds) on the Marina Bay Street Circuit. Last year's winner Carlos Sainz rounded off the Scuderia's strong result with third place (+0.629).

World champion and championship leader Max Verstappen was 15th in the weakening Red Bull.

 

Here are the interim results:

The Dutchman has been waiting for a win for seven races and has never won in Singapore. Verstappen still leads the championship standings with 59 points ahead of Norris. McLaren recently took the lead in the constructors' championship ahead of Red Bull Racing in Azerbaijan, with the traditional British team leading by 20 points ahead of the 18th of 24 races of the season on Sunday (14:00/live ORF 1, Sky).

Shortly before the end of the second session, George Russell crashed his Mercedes into the barriers, but the Briton was able to steer his car back into the pits without a front wing.

World championship lead surrendered
For the first time in 55 races, Red Bull is not in first place in the constructors' championship ahead of a Grand Prix weekend. McLaren overtook the Austrian-British racing team last Sunday in Baku thanks to Oscar Piastri's victory and a fourth place finish by Lando Norris. Since the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai in April, a McLaren driver has finished in the top three in every race - no other team can match that.

Verstappen has been waiting for a win for seven races.(Bild: AFP/APA/SIMON WOHLFAHRT)

McLaren is 20 points ahead of Red Bull in the championship standings, and Norris and Piastri have now collected four victories. The one-man show that is Max Verstappen has always been more successful, as the Dutchman has seven victories to his name. However, the trend is certainly not a friend of the three-time champion, who recently finished a distant fifth in Azerbaijan.