» Verstappen sets the early pace in Singapore

Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen set the early practice pace as the Singapore Grand Prix got underway, with the Hungarian Grand Prix winner narrowly shading Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel.

The FP1 session producing mixed fortunes for the Mercedes and Ferrari runners, with Vettel’s teammate Charles Leclerc limping back to the pits with a gearbox failure, while Valtteri Bottas crashed out at Turn 19.

Verstappen’s fastest lap of the session, a 1:40.259, saw him shade Vettel by less than two-tenths of a second as both drivers posted their quickest times on the Soft compound Pirelli tyres. Third-fastest was championship leader Lewis Hamilton, who split his running between the Soft and Hard rubber and could not get within half a second of the ultimate pace.

Leclerc’s session was halted when his Ferrari became stuck in fourth gear, forcing the winner of the last two Grands Prix to limp back to the pits with just over half an hour remaining. The Monégasque driver finished the session 19th-fastest, having yet to set a flying lap on the Soft rubber before his gearbox dramas intervened.

A sudden snap of oversteer brought Bottas’ session to a close shortly after Leclerc’s dramas. The Finn’s car drifted into the barriers at Turn 19, causing heavy damage to the front left corner of his Mercedes. His accident triggered a red flag interruption so his car could be recovered to safety.

Despite this, he still managed to finish the session fourth-fastest and will hope that his car can be repaired in time ahead of tonight’s all-important FP2 session which will better represent the conditions the field will experience in qualifying and the race.

Verstappen’s teammate Alexander Albon was fifth-fastest, albeit a full 1.2 seconds down on the Dutch driver. He finished ahead of Renault’s Nico Hülkenberg, who was a promising P6 on the timesheets.

The McLaren pairing of Carlos Sainz Jr. – who had a near coming-together with Hamilton early in the session – and Lando Norris were seventh and eighth on the timesheets respectively, with Toro Rosso duo Daniil Kvyat and Pierre Gasly completing the top ten.

FORMULA 1 SINGAPORE AIRLINES SINGAPORE GRAND PRIX 2019 – FREE PRACTICE SESSION 1
	Driver	Team / Entry	Time	Gap	Laps
1.	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing RB15	1:40.259		22
2.	Sebastian Vettel	Scuderia Ferrari SF90	1:40.426	+ 0.167	23
3.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes-AMG Motorsport W10	1:40.925	+ 0.666	26
4.	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes-AMG Motorsport W10	1:41.336	+ 1.077	14
5.	Alexander Albon	Red Bull Racing RB15	1:41.467	+ 1.208	24
6.	Nico Hülkenberg	Renault F1 Team RS19	1:41.812	+ 1.553	26
7.	Carlos Sainz Jr.	McLaren F1 Team MCL34	1:41.966	+ 1.707	20
8.	Lando Norris	McLaren F1 Team MCL34	1:42.180	+ 1.921	19
9.	Daniil Kvyat	Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda STR14	1:42.305	+ 2.046	26
10.	Pierre Gasly	Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda STR14	1:42.377	+ 2.118	24
11.	Daniel Ricciardo	Renault F1 Team RS19	1:42.527	+ 2.268	20
12.	Romain Grosjean	Haas F1 Team VF-19	1:42.630	+ 2.371	23
13.	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo Racing C38	1:42.677	+ 2.418	15
14.	Kimi Räikkönen	Alfa Romeo Racing C38	1:42.786	+ 2.527	13
15.	Lance Stroll	Racing Point F1 Team RP19	1:42.791	+ 2.532	28
16.	Kevin Magnussen	Haas F1 Team VF-19	1:43.150	+ 2.891	22
17.	Robert Kubica	ROKiT Williams Racing FW42	1:43.336	+ 3.077	28
18.	Sergio Pérez	Racing Point F1 Team RP19	1:43.369	+ 3.110	23
19.	Charles Leclerc	Scuderia Ferrari SF90	1:43.618	+ 3.359	12
20.	George Russell	ROKiT Williams Racing FW42	1:43.993	+ 3.734	29