Raikkonen fastest in Singapore FP2 as Vettel hits wall

Kimi Raikkonen edged out Lewis Hamilton to finish fastest in second practice for the Singapore Grand Prix as Ferrari Formula 1 teammate Sebastian Vettel’s session was cut short following a brush with the wall midway through the session.

Two weeks on from his charge to pole position at Monza, Raikkonen once again featured at the top of the timesheets as he turned in a fastest time of 1m38.699s on the Hypersoft tyre to edge out Mercedes’ Hamilton by just 0.011 seconds.

Championship leader Hamilton had a clean session en route to P2 for Mercedes, but the same could not be said of his title rival Vettel, who lost his Hypersoft run following a mistake at Turn 21.

Vettel had been set to lap close to Raikkonen and Hamilton’s times, only to run wide and hit the wall with the right-hand side of his car, forcing the German to immediately dive into the pits.

While there was no major damage sustained, Vettel’s car did leak red liquid in the Ferrari pit box as it was wheeled back into the garage. Vettel immediately out of the car and went to the back of the garage, his session ending with just 12 laps to his name and only the ninth-fastest time.

Red Bull drivers Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo finished the session third and fourth respectively, but neither could get within half a second of Raikkonen’s time at the front of the pack.

Valtteri Bottas finished fifth in the second Mercedes, six-tenths back from teammate Hamilton, with the Finn struggling to keep his Hypersoft tyres alive for a second flying lap.

Carlos Sainz Jr. was the leading midfield driver in sixth place for Renault, edging out Haas’ Romain Grosjean by one-tenth of a second.

Fernando Alonso led McLaren into the top 10, taking P8 overall after narrowly dodging a collision with Marcus Ericsson when the Sauber driver spun in front of him on the racing line late in the session.

Nico Hulkenberg completed the top 10 for Renault behind Vettel, with Force India drivers Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon following in 11th and 13th, split by Ericsson.

Charles Leclerc took 14th in the sister Sauber ahead of Haas’ Kevin Magnussen, who lapped seven-tenths of a second slower than his teammate to finish down in 15th. Stoffel Vandoorne followed for McLaren in P16.

Toro Rosso had a difficult session as drivers Brendon Hartley and Pierre Gasly finished 17th and 18th respectively, while the Williams pair of Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin propped up the timesheets behind.