George Russell puts PU misery behind him to spearhead sole Singapore GP practice

George Russell finished quickest in the sole practice session ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix.

On soft rubber, Russell posted a time of one minute 32.274s in his Mercedes, finishing 0.198s ahead of Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, with Lando Norris in his McLaren a further 0.075s further back.

Russell, however, will start at the back of the grid. During the session, the FIA confirmed Mercedes had fitted a completely new power unit, comprising ICE, turbocharger, MGU-K, energy store, control electronics and exhaust set.

The Briton has also reverted to a car specification that helped him dominate the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, with Antonelli using the upgrade which was on the W17s for last weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, allowing Mercedes to comparison test the different packages.

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With only one practice session before the first sprint qualifying session over a Singapore weekend, all the drivers wasted little time taking to a very dusty track.

Following several sighter laps, Red Bull's Verstappen set the opening respectable time of 1:35.641s on the hard tyre, a time quickly usurped by Leclerc by just over four-tenths of a second, before Russell became the first to dip below 95 seconds.

As the track rapidly ramped up, Norris comfortably slashed six-tenths of a second off Russell's time with a 1:34.367s. That was not the leading one for long, however, as Leclerc posted a 1:33.969s.

Russell, though, soon shaved a tenth off that to take up top spot before Antonelli nipped ahead by 0.056s.

At the halfway stage, and with no change to the hard tyre running, Antonelli led Leclerc by 0.034s, followed by Russell. The Red Bull of Isack Hadjar was fourth quickest at that point, two-tenths of a second down.

Verstappen, who had encountered radio issues early in the session, according to team principal Laurent Mekies, was 1.1s adrift.

With 20 minutes remaining, Audi's Nico Hulkenberg became the weekend's first casualty, with his car grinding to a halt as he made his way along the start-finish straight, sparking a VSC.

The veteran German parked his car at the end of the pit lane, where marshals helped retrieve it and push it back into the garage. He did not return as his mechanics attended to the problem.

Inside the final 15 minutes, the drivers upped the ante on tyres, with a number switching to the mediums, mandatory in the first two sessions of sprint qualifying, whilst others swapped to the softs.

Russell was one of those on the red-striped rubber, going almost a second quicker than Antonelli's best on the hards, posting a 1:32.864s, only to be beaten by Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton by 0.043s.

Russell, though, was not to be denied, posting a time of almost six-tenths quicker than Hamilton before Leclerc and Norris separated the duo.

McLaren's Oscar Piastri completed the top five, who were all on softs, albeit 0.564s down.

Verstappen led the medium-tyre runners, 0.732s back, followed by Antonelli, who had a late off-track moment before reversing, Hadjar, Alpine's Pierre Gasly and Liam Lawson for Racing Bulls, the New Zealander 1.881s off the pace.

At the rear of the 22-car field were the Cadillacs of Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas, both just over three seconds down.