P1racenews AI automatic summary:
It’s advantage Ferrari as Charles Leclerc set the fastest lap in Free Practice 1 for the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix.
“In the opening free practice session for the Singapore Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc narrowly beat Lando Norris by less than a tenth of a second, with Max Verstappen finishing fourth for Red Bull. Carlos Sainz ended up third for Ferrari, while Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda impressed with fifth and sixth places for McLaren and Red Bull respectively. Despite a lowly 12th position for Lewis Hamilton, it was an eventful session with Kevin Magnussen returning in 17th for Haas.
The leading teams adopted different strategies with their Pirelli tyres, with Ferrari using the C3 hard tyres while Red Bull and Mercedes chose the same option. Norris of McLaren stood out by using the C4 medium tyres. Norris initially set the pace in the session but was later overtaken by Leclerc who set the fastest overall time. Verstappen, Hamilton, and Sainz were also within competitive range. Albon, Alonso, and Ocon completed the top 10, with Alonso narrowly avoiding a crash.
Hamilton, in 12th place, experienced grip and traction issues during the session, while Magnussen made a decent return in 17th. Bottas, Zhou, and Hulkenberg faced challenges, with Bottas expressing frustration over being blocked on multiple fast laps in a tough season for the driver.”
