George Russell set the fastest time in the first and only free practice session at the Singapore Grand Prix, finishing just under two tenths clear of Charles Leclerc and ahead of Lando Norris. The Mercedes driver immediately established the weekend’s first benchmark despite running the older car package, while contrasting tyre choices across the field made the final classification less straightforward than the headline positions might suggest.
Rather than providing a definitive picture of the competitive order in absolute terms, Singapore FP1 proved particularly interesting because tyre strategy played such a major role. Russell’s advantage of roughly two tenths was significant, but several drivers further down the standings completed their qualifying simulations on the Medium tyre rather than the Soft, leaving their ultimate one-lap potential more difficult to judge ahead of Sprint Qualifying.
George Russell sets the pace on the Soft tyre
During the first part of the session, every driver used the Hard compound, with teams also completing longer stints to gather some information on long-run behaviour. When attention shifted towards qualifying simulations, however, the strategies diverged considerably. The session highlighted a substantial performance difference between the Medium and Soft compounds, with the softer tyre offering a clear advantage.
Russell eventually emerged on top for Mercedes, even though his car was fitted with the older package. For the time being, the British driver also went without the updated front wing introduced in Singapore, which was instead fitted only to Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s car.
Russell recorded his best lap on his second attempt with the Soft tyre, finding around half a second compared with his previous run. That improvement also suggested there was still significant lap time available as the drivers progressively built confidence and moved closer to the barriers, as would be expected on a circuit with such a strong street-track character.
Mercedes looked particularly quick with Russell in the first sector, especially under acceleration, as well as towards the end of the third sector. At the same time, the car remained competitive through the more technical section containing numerous slow 90-degree corners.
Charles Leclerc closes to within two tenths for Ferrari
Charles Leclerc finished second for Ferrari, with the SF-26 appearing to follow almost the opposite performance pattern to Russell’s Mercedes around the lap. The Monegasque improved in the final moments of the session to finish just under two tenths away from the benchmark.
Leclerc was not running the additional rear-wing appendages introduced at Zandvoort. Those components were instead fitted to Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari, allowing the team to conduct a direct comparison between the two configurations. With Singapore featuring only a single free practice session, the compressed format made extracting useful information from these comparisons especially important before competitive running began, as also outlined in the Ferrari Singapore Sprint weekend preview.
Lando Norris placed McLaren third as the team looked to respond after the previous two rounds. On paper, the abundance of slow corners should not necessarily favour the MCL40, yet McLaren actually recorded the fastest time of anyone in the second sector during FP1. It is also worth considering that Singapore requires maximum downforce, a characteristic that can help the car, as seen at other events.
Lewis Hamilton loses second Soft-tyre attempt after mistake
Lewis Hamilton finished fourth, although his deficit had already grown to around half a second. Part of that gap was explained by his inability to complete his second flying lap on the Soft compound.
During that second run, the Ferrari driver made a mistake at the beginning of sector two, losing the rear of the car in a significant oversteer moment. Hamilton was forced to abandon the lap, which proved costly on a day when the second attempt delivered a sizeable improvement for several drivers.
With the second Soft-tyre run having such a major influence on the final order, drivers who failed to improve saw their gaps increase considerably. Ferrari and McLaren choosing to use the Soft tyre already in FP1 may have served not only to help their drivers find confidence but also as an indication that the teams could consider the Medium for Saturday’s Sprint. Two sets will in any case be used during Friday’s Sprint Qualifying sessions. The full 2026 Singapore Grand Prix Sprint schedule shows just how compressed the weekend programme is.
Verstappen and Antonelli keep a Soft set in reserve
Oscar Piastri completed the top five in the second McLaren, finishing approximately two and a half tenths behind Norris. All five drivers at the head of the classification used the Soft tyre for their qualifying simulations.
That choice was particularly understandable in Russell’s case because he is likely to save a set during Q3 on Saturday, given that he will have to start from the back in any case. His main objective is therefore to maximise the Sprint.
From Max Verstappen downwards, with the exception of the two Cadillac cars near the bottom of the order, the remaining drivers preferred to use a set of Medium tyres. The intention was to retain an additional set of Softs for the remainder of the weekend after the softer compound demonstrated a significant performance advantage. The apparent step between the two compounds was substantial enough that the resulting gaps in the classification should therefore not come as a surprise.
Max Verstappen ended the session around seven tenths off Russell’s pace and ahead of Andrea Kimi Antonelli. The Mercedes driver ran wide during his second attempt on the yellow-marked Medium compound and consequently had to rely on the lap time set during his first run, leaving him more than 1.2 seconds behind his teammate.
Isack Hadjar encountered a similar situation in the other Red Bull. The French driver repeatedly reported difficulties with the RB22’s ability to deal with the bumps in the track surface, an issue that had already been considered a potential concern heading into the weekend.
Pierre Gasly completed the top 10 for Alpine, followed by Liam Lawson for Racing Bulls, with the gap to the front stretching to almost two seconds by that point.
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