Lando Norris doesn’t want to waste time: the Englishman wanted to show his muscles in the qualifying simulation. With the McLaren MCL38 he reached 1’29″646 which is a time that cancels out last year’s pole, going under the record of 1″3. It is true that the track has been partially resurfaced and, therefore, theoretically there is more grip on the new stretch, but it is also true that it rained during the night, removing all the rubber that was deposited.
Master at brushing the walls, Norris has raised the bar compared to yesterday and has created a void: the curly British driver is a candidate for pole position, giving a significant gap to the rest of the group. George Russell with the Mercedes is second, but does not break the 1′”30 wall, paying 479 thousandths. The driver of the Star was among the first to fit the soft: after having signed an interesting performance he has remedied a series of long runs that demonstrate the difficulty of the W15. Confirmation comes from Lewis Hamilton who is rather defeatist: the position is not so impressive, he is seventh, but the gap of eight tenths from his teammate.
The value of Norris’ time is given by the third position of Oscar Piastri relegated to 785 thousandths from his teammate: with the same car the gap is enormous. Max Verstappen is fourth at eight tenths with Red Bull: the Dutchman seems to have found the line of development of the RB20 with a more driveable car than yesterday, but Lando seems very far away. Not good either Sergio Perez relegated to a disappointing 15th place.
Ferrari seems lost: excellent with the medium tyres, disappointing with the soft ones. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz are fifth and sixth, almost a second apart. The red car has suffered a loss of grip with the soft compound. The drivers seemed disappointed, but it is true that qualifying will be held at night with temperatures much lower than in the afternoon. From the comments, the Scuderia seems to have lost its way: we saw the mechanics playing with the pressures, a sign that everything was not under control.
Williams did well: Alexander Albon struggled to get back in front of Franco Colapinto, a teammate who was more difficult than he might have thought. Fernando Alonso with Aston Martin closed the top 10, while Lance Stroll was only 18th. Yuki Tsunoda with Racing Bulls was 11th: yesterday the cars from Faenza were ahead, perhaps due to a Honda engine with a more powerful mapping. Daniel Ricciardo slipped further back than the Japanese driver, relegated to 17th place.
The two Haas are together with Nico Hulkenberg and the returning Kevin Magnussen who are 12th and 13th ahead of the Alpine of Pierre Gasly, punctually ahead of Esteban Ocon. The group is closed by Sauber who is getting used to seeing the grid from the back with Valtteri Bottas and an increasingly colorless Guanyu Zhou. A disaster…
#Singapore #Free #Practice #Norris #leaves #gap #Leclerc
