Oscar Piastri topped a messy second practice at Formula 1’s Singapore Grand Prix, which was red flagged twice as George Russell and Liam Lawson hit the wall, while Charles Leclerc clashed with Lando Norris in the pitlane.
Piastri rose to the top of the order amid a compressed set of soft-tyre runs, as over 20 minutes of the session was lost to the red flag periods. The Australian’s 1m30.714s stood as the fastest time over Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
McLaren had demonstrated improved pace over FP1 in the early phases of the session; Norris had set a 1m32.226s benchmark on mediums, which was only beaten when Piastri unfurled a 1m31.716s on his third flyer of the session.
Norris looked set to go quicker, but lost time in the final sector and ended up 0.007s shy of his championship-leading team-mate.
The session was then put on pause when Russell lost the rear and hit the wall at Turn 16, which snapped his front wing off from his Mercedes. A rearranged barrier, allied to his front wing debris, produced a red flag after the opening 15 minutes of the session.
Once the litter was cleared away, Lewis Hamilton vaulted to the top of the order – but this was a brief flirtation with the limelight as the soft tyre runs had begun in earnest – Esteban Ocon deposed Hamilton with a 1m31.480s on the C5 tyre.
George Russell, Mercedes crash
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Formula 1 via Getty Images
Lawson then hit the wall on the exit of Turn 17 and peeled his right-front tyre off the rim to produce another red flag, coming to rest on the entrance to the pitlane to interrupt a handful of notable soft tyre laps.
The resumption of the session was further complicated when, amid the scramble for track position, Leclerc left the garage and went straight into Norris, which shoved the Briton into the pitwall and knocked off his front wing.
Soft tyre runs resumed, initially headlined by Hadjar’s 1m31.440s, but this was surpassed by Fernando Alonso – who sat top of FP1 – as he dived into the 1m30s.
Alonso’s 1m30.877s was beaten by a smidgen by Verstappen, who went 0.02s quicker, but Piastri then found an advantage and returned to the top of the order to close out the session. Hadjar’s late final effort split Piastri and Verstappen, as Alonso settled in fourth.
Norris shook off the pitlane drama to claim fifth, but later aired his dismay over the radio over his gap to Piastri – typically putting the near-half-second gap down to his driving.
Lance Stroll was sixth-fastest over Ocon, while Carlos Sainz, Leclerc, and Hamilton completed the top 10.
F1 Singapore GP – FP2 results
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– The Autosport.com Team
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