Piastri bounces back as fastest in Singapore practice
Ian Chadband |
Championship leader Oscar Piastri has roared to the fastest time on the first day of practice under lights at the Singapore Grand Prix, swiftly putting behind him the misery of his worst ever Formula One race in Baku.
Piastri topped the timesheets with a one minute 30.714 seconds lap in an evening session when nearest rival and teammate Lando Norris could only go fifth quickest after his McLaren had suffered a broken front wing when he was the blameless victim of a pitlane collision.
Two weeks since crashing out of the Azerbaijan GP in both qualifying and the grand prix itself, thus failing to score any points for the first time all season, Piastri was after a confidence restoring day at the Marina Bay Street Circuit on Friday and got just what he wanted.
In contrast, Norris, who had closed the gap between them to 25 points in Baku, had a poor outing, finishing 0.483sec adrift of Piastri, and sounded down on himself once more as he told his race engineer Will Joseph: “The car is not half-a-second off. My driving is.”
That downbeat self-assessment came after the luckless Norris had suffered a collision in the pits with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
His car had just emerged from his garage after a second red-flag stoppage, when Leclerc’s Ferrari was released over-hastily into his path, with the McLaren going into the concrete wall as Norris was unable to take evasive action.
There was damage to the front of the McLaren before he was wheeled back by his mechanics for repairs. “I just crashed,” sighed Norris over the radio. “He drove straight into me.”
When he re-emerged for the last 10 minutes of the session, he couldn’t make any impression on Piastri’s time which topped Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar’s best by 0.132sec and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen’s by 0.143 in the top three.
Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, who topped the first practice, had another strong session and finished fourth ahead of Norris.
Ferrari were ninth and 10th with Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton respectively, while Mercedes had Kimi Antonelli in 18th and George Russell last after he crashed.
There was another red flag when Liam Lawson also crashed into the wall and needed his Racing Bulls car to be recovered.
Verstappen looks an increasing danger to Piastri’s ambitions after back-to-back wins in Monza and Baku, the reigning champion now 69 points behind with seven races remaining.
Singapore remains the only track on the calendar at which the four-times champion has never won.
McLaren will claim the constructors’ title in Singapore on Sunday as long as Piastri and Norris can score 13 points between them.
AAP
