Aston Martin's Alonso Sets Pace First Practice at Singapore
F1 Singapore
This weekend features the main event kicking off at 1pm BST on race day.
Live coverage streamed on digital platforms and official website.
Practice Session Summary
Aston Martin's two-time champion set the pace ahead of Scuderia star and Red Bull's Max Verstappen in FP1 at the street circuit event.
McLaren's drivers Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris wrapped up the run in mid-table positions.
The young Australian was over two tenths speedier than the Briton.
Alonso was 0.150secs leading of the Ferrari driver and a clear gap faster than the Red Bull star.
The Italian squad's seven-time champion was P4.
Weekend Outlook
Unlikely that Aston Martin will be contenders for pole position.
Nonetheless, the squad are confident of a strong showing on a low-speed track that is better matched to their car, which performs better when high levels of aerodynamic grip are called for.
Veteran racer Alonso is also known as a Singapore specialist, and typically performs well on the night race venue.
However he was almost certainly running reduced weight or a higher engine mode than his opponents, or both, to post the fastest lap.
Team Updates
Fellow driver Lance Stroll was a significant margin slower in 18th place.
Stroll had issues with his cockpit during the initial runs and was also running experimental parts.
FP1 in Singapore is not reflective of race pace under lights as it is held in daylight in early evening, while qualifying and the main event are held under floodlights.
Points Situation
Piastri leads his teammate by a solid margin with the final stretch ahead entering the weekend in the Lion City.
McLaren are poised to clinch the manufacturers' crown on Sunday.
The only way they can not tie it up in this race is if Mercedes surpass them by over thirty or the Scuderia achieve that by thirty-five.
Red Bull Update
Red Bull are hopeful of a good performance after recent successes in Italy and Azerbaijan leading into this event.
The team breathed a sigh when drizzle falling prior to running stopped by the point the vehicles emerged on a circuit that had not been wet.
Motorsport adviser the Austrian commented ahead of practice that they needed a dry hour to get underway on optimizing their set-up for the weekend.
