Leclerc shades Norris in Singapore first practice as Verstappen encouraged

Charles Leclerc narrowly pipped Lando Norris to the fastest-time in the opening free practice session for the Singapore Grand Prix. 

In dusty and non-representative track conditions, Leclerc shaded Norris by less than a tenth of a second to take the honours in the first 60 minutes of practice, with Max Verstappen an encouraging fourth for Red Bull and within striking range. 

Carlos Sainz was third in the sister Ferrari as RB impressed with Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo splitting Oscar Piastri in the second McLaren in fifth-sixth-seventh, as Lewis Hamilton was a lowly 12th for Mercedes. 

The returning Kevin Magnussen took 17th for Haas.

The opening half of the session at the Marina Bay Street Circuit featured a mix of approaches as the leading teams opted for different strategies with their Pirelli tyres.

Ferrari opted to use the C3 white-walled hard tyres with the Red Bulls and Mercedes, but the McLaren of Norris decided to use a set of C4 medium tyres, as Piastri was delayed in the pits by 10 minutes as McLaren worked through a problem with the wheel hub. 

Norris was initially the quickest as he and Leclerc traded lap-times, with Sainz also in close attendance as the Monegasque whittled the benchmark down to a 1:33.702s by the mid-session lull and the switch over to the C5 red-marked soft tyre runs.

The opening gambit from Norris on this tyre was a 1:32.615s, with Verstappen and Hamilton then slotting into second and third, but well-behind the MCL38 as Norris then found further time to improve to a 1:32.164 on a subsequent lap. 

Sainz then posted a lap 0.001s slower than Norris to slot into second, with Norris then improving to a 1:31.839s that would ultimately stand as his fastest lap.

This was only beaten by a 1:31.763s from Leclerc, with Sainz also within two-tenths of his team-mate and Verstappen in fourth some 0.334s slower than the leading pace.

In the upgraded Williams, Alex Albon was eighth with Fernando Alonso ninth and Esteban Ocon rounding out the top 10 as Alonso avoided a huge crash on the exit of Turn 7 - and retorted that he had pressed the pit-limiter button as to "avoid a crash with this car, I pressed all the buttons."

Mercedes woes

Franco Colapinto was 11th ahead of Hamilton in 12th, who complained of poor traction, understeer and a general lack of grip as he bettered Pierre Gasly in 13th.

Sergio Perez was 14th, having caused a brief yellow-flag, with Lance Stroll 15th ahead of the second Mercedes of George Russell in 16th. 

The returning Magnussen was 17th, ahead of Valtteri Bottas, Zhou Guanyu and Nico Hulkenberg - with Bottas blocked on multiple fast laps leading to an air of frustration from the Finn in what has until now been a point-less season.