Singapore GP: Leclerc outpaces Hamilton in FP3

Ferrari was not expected to challenge for honours in Singapore and its lead car was 0.8s off the pace in Friday practice, but Leclerc improved his own fastest time on the opening day by almost two seconds in FP3.

A 1m38.192s launched the Belgian and Italian Grands Prix winner to top spot, two tenths clear of Mercedes driver Hamilton.

Leclerc spent most of FP3 on top, setting the pace in the early runs as Mercedes’ drivers used medium tyres instead of softs.

A red flag around the halfway mark, caused by Sergio Perez clouting the wall exiting the final chicane with his right rear and leaving debris on the track, interrupted the next round of qualifying simulations.

After that stoppage, Valtteri Bottas briefly went fastest for Mercedes on a 1m39.166s, but as that was slower than the fastest time from Friday it was never likely to remain the benchmark.

Leclerc swiftly reclaimed top spot with his low-1m38s, a time only Hamilton came close to matching – after the championship leader recovered from a spin at Turn 3.

Sebastian Vettel, who led Ferrari’s effort on Friday, was third-fastest and 0.619s slower than Leclerc.

Bottas improved on his brief table-topping lap to end up fourth on a 1m38.885s, just behind Vettel.

Alex Albon was surprisingly Red Bull’s best-placed driver in fifth, after Max Verstappen failed to improve late on.

Verstappen was third quickest, 0.2s slower than Bottas, on the penultimate runs but a messy lap and then traffic prevented him from improving. That allowed Albon to nip in ahead with a 1m39.258s.

Behind the big three teams, McLaren duo Carlos Sainz Jr and Lando Norris led the midfield runners.

Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg and Daniel Ricciardo completed the two-by-two formation behind the top four.

Perez’s smack against the wall was the only contact-related incident of note in the session.

Daniil Kvyat failed to set a time after aborting a lap early on with smoke starting to appear from the back of his Honda-powered Toro Rosso.

Kvyat suffered an oil leak and will switch to a different engine for qualifying, but will not incur a grid penalty as it is a previously-used power unit.

Session results

Cla	#	Driver	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap
1	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	15	1'38.192
2	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	15	1'38.399	0.207
3	5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	13	1'38.811	0.619
4	77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	16	1'38.885	0.693
5	23	Alex Albon	Red Bull	14	1'39.258	1.066
6	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	9	1'39.366	1.174
7	55	Carlos Sainz Jr.	McLaren	14	1'39.507	1.315
8	4	Lando Norris	McLaren	13	1'39.709	1.517
9	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	15	1'40.118	1.926
10	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Renault	12	1'40.153	1.961
11	18	Lance Stroll	Racing Point	11	1'40.209	2.017
12	10	Pierre Gasly	Toro Rosso	15	1'40.339	2.147
13	7	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo	16	1'40.953	2.761
14	11	Sergio Perez	Racing Point	4	1'40.985	2.793
15	63	George Russell	Williams	13	1'41.156	2.964
16	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo	14	1'41.169	2.977
17	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	12	1'41.494	3.302
18	8	Romain Grosjean	Haas	12	1'41.542	3.350
19	88	Robert Kubica	Williams	13	1'41.954	3.762
20	26	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	3
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