Ricciardo Leads Red Bull 1-2 in Opening Practice at Singapore

By FIA

Ricciardo’s best time of the session came late in the session when he bolted on a set of new hypersoft compound tyres to post a lap of 1:39.711. That was good enough to oust Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel from top spot. Verstappen then dropped the German to third with his time of 1:39.912.

The Dutchman finished 0.201s behind Ricciardo, with Vettel a little over eight hundredths of a second further back. Kimi Räikkönen finished fourth for Ferrari, almost eight tenths of a second off Ricciardo’s pace, though the Finn was disadvantaged by a car problem that cost him a significant amount of track time.

Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg was the best of the rest in fifth place, with the German finishing almost 1.4 seconds off the pace.

Championship leader Lewis Hamilton finished the session in a relatively lowly sixth place, though neither he nor eight-placed team-mate Valtteri Bottas, ran on the hypersofts during the 90-minute session. Carlos Sainz, in the second Renault, split the Mercedes by taking seventh place.

Behind Bottas, Charles Leclerc, who earlier in the week was announced as a Ferrari driver for 2019 in place of Räikkönen, finished the session in ninth place.

The Monegasque driver’s session ended in disappointment, however. Minutes from the end of the session Leclerc made a small error on entry to Turn 3 and clipped the barrier. The impact broke his front right suspension, though he was able to limp his off track via and escape road.

The top 10 order was completed by Haas’ Romain Grosjean, with the French driver finishing three tenths of a second ahead of Marcus Ericsson in the second Sauber.

2018 Singapore Grand Prix – Free Practice 1 
1 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 27 1:39.711
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull 27 1:39.912 0.201
3 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 23 1:39.997 0.286
4 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 21 1:40.486 0.775
5 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 26 1:41.105 1.394
6 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 28 1:41.232 1.521
7 Carlos Sainz Renault 23 1:41.329 1.618
8 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 28 1:41.429 1.718
9 Charles Leclerc Sauber 24 1:42.035 2.324
10 Romain Grosjean Haas 21 1:42.108 2.397
11 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 23 1:42.408 2.697
12 Sergio Perez Force India 25 1:42.412 2.701
13 Kevin Magnussen Haas 20 1:42.452 2.741
14 Fernando Alonso McLaren 23 1:42.630 2.919
15 Esteban Ocon Force India 25 1:43.177 3.466
16 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso 25 1:43.240 3.529
17 Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso 30 1:43.485 3.774
18 Lance Stroll Williams 30 1:43.849 4.138
19 Sergey Sirotkin Williams 29 1:44.036 4.325
20 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren 11 1:45.160 5.449