Ricciardo leads Verstappen as Red Bull impress in FP1

Full FP1 results ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix

Daniel Ricciardo heads up a Red Bull 1-2 in the opening practice session ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix in front of both Ferraris in tricky conditions at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.

With all drivers getting up to speed on the dusty and dirty street track the times duly tumbled as the circuit rubbered in. Both Red Bull and Ferrari opted for their hypersoft tyre runs later in the session, with Sebastian Vettel setting the time to beat as the first driver into the 1m 39s bracket before seeing both Red Bull drivers jump ahead on their single lap runs of the softest tyre.

Ricciardo, who has often impressed in Singapore with five consecutive podiums, duly claimed top spot with a 1m 39.711s to pull out two-tenths of a second on teammate Max Verstappen. That shuffled Vettel down to third ahead of Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen.

Renault impressed during FP1 with Nico Hulkenberg jumping above both Mercedes cars to take fifth place, albeit 1.394s off Ricciardo’s leading effort, with Hamilton in sixth with his best lap set on the soft tyres.

Carlos Sainz claimed seventh place ahead of Valtteri Bottas with Ferrari-bound Charles Leclerc taking ninth place in his Alfa Romeo Sauber – only to see his session cut short by a late crash at Turn 13 in which he sustained broken front right suspension.

The Ferrari-powered midfield teams continued to impress with Romain Grosjean in tenth for Haas just ahead of the second Sauber of Marcus Ericsson in 12^th, with Force India’s Sergio Perez disrupting the trend just ahead of Kevin Magnussen in the Haas.

Fernando Alonso grabbed 14^th place in the session for McLaren just ahead of Esteban Ocon, who continues to fight for his Formula 1 future, with the Toro Rosso Honda duo of Pierre Gasly and Brendon Hartley following up in 16^th and 17^th.

Williams continued its struggles with Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin propping up the results in FP1 but ahead of McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne who suffered a hydraulics issue which truncated his session.