All eyes will be on Red Bull’s rivals this weekend to see whether they can finally end Max Verstappen’s dominance. Mercedes have already made some noise this week that they’re hopeful of a strong performance in Singapore.
As a maximum-downforce circuit, the Yas Marina track suits the W14 more than most. Meanwhile, both Red Bull drivers are not so confident about this weekend’s race suiting the RB19.
Last year’s race proved how much can happen at the tricky Yas Marina circuit with Verstappen starting from eighth due to a fuel miscalculation before only managing seventh in the race. Sergio Perez managed to hold off a strong challenge from Charles Leclerc in the closing stages with Ferrari also hoping to push Red Bull again this year.
It’s one of just a few tracks now that Verstappen is yet to win on and the Dutchman isn’t as confident as he usually is.
“A little bit more difficult, I think for us. But we’ll see,” Verstappen said. “We’ll do our best and of course, we’ll try to go in there and try to win it again. But it’s not, let’s say, going to be the strongest weekend for us.”
That’s a wrap
That’s going to conclude our rolling F1 coverage for today, folks.
But we’re only getting warmed up for the weekend ahead.
Don’t forget to come back to Express Sport bright and early tomorrow morning – we’ll bring you comprehensive coverage of Singapore Grand Prix qualifying, and it promises to be an exciting one.
Perez agrees with Verstappen
Sergio Perez has joined Max Verstappen in calling for the Red Bull team to pull together and fix their issues overnight in Singapore.
The pair were a long way behind the Ferraris during Friday practice at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.
“I think there’s some interesting bits going on that we need to figure out overnight hopefully,” Perez told Sky Sports.
“We seem to be struggling quite a bit with the rear end of the car. Especially in FP2, so plenty of things to look at and hopefully we can come up with the best possible setup because we know that qualifying it’s very important.”
Marko warned by FIA
Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has been given a warning by the FIA after making controversial comments about his own driver, Sergio Perez.
The Mexican’s fluctuations in form were put down to ‘being South American’ by Marko, with Red Bull boss Christian Horner admitting that the comment was wrong.
Marko has since apologised to Perez privately.
The FIA have said: “We can confirm that Helmut Marko has received a written warning and been reminded of his responsibilities as a public figure in motorsport in line with the FIA Code of Ethics.”
Verstappen downbeat after Red Bull performance
Max Verstappen was worried about Red Bull’s chances of fighting for pole position on Saturday after the first two practice sessions ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix, claiming that the team were ‘way worse’ than their rivals on Friday.
The Dutchman ended FP2 in P8, behind his team-mate Sergio Perez and way off the pace of the two Ferrari drivers who are threatening to make it back-to-back pole positions for the Scuderia following Carlos Sainz’s triumph in qualifying at Monza.
Speaking to Sky Sports F1 after FP2, Verstappen said: “It was a bit unexpected today. Yeah, just struggling a lot with the balance of the car. We tried quite a few things in FP2… some worked, some didn’t.
“I never really got the car together, so it’s quite a few things to figure out tonight basically.”
Sainz ‘does not believe’ Red Bull lull
Carlos Sainz is not reading too much into Red Bull’s underwhelming pace in Friday practice at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.
In FP2, runaway Drivers’ Championship leader Max Verstappen was seven-tenths behind Sainz’s Ferrari.
When asked whether Red Bull could be in trouble, the Spaniard said: “No, I don’t believe it.
“When you look at the long-run pace, they looked like the strongest car. Once they sort out the one-lap pace they’ll be there fighting for pole. Hopefully we will be in the fight too.”
Leclerc urges caution after Ferrari display
Charles Leclerc is refusing to get carried away after Ferrari dominated both of Friday’s practice sessions in Singapore.
The Prancing Horse put in a solid performance last time out at Monza, and their pace at the Marina Bay Street Circuit suggests that they could challenge Red Bull on Sunday.
“We are surprised,” admitted Leclerc. “But we are not getting carried away either. It’s only Friday and we expect the other teams to show more their true potential tomorrow.
“So we cannot get carried away, but it is true that we did not expect this kind of performance on Friday at least.”
Norris’ verdict on McLaren upgrades
Lando Norris has spoken positively of McLaren’s upgrades after Friday practice in Singapore.
The youngster feels that the team are in a good position to challenge with the grid’s big hitters if the power balance remains the same deep into the weekend.
“We’ve definitely taken some steps forward with the new bits, they’re doing what they’re meant to do which is always a good thing,” Norris told F1TV.
“[There were] a couple of mistakes maybe which cost me a lot of time but [there are] plenty of things for us to improve.”
Hamilton unhappy with rebel teams
Lewis Hamilton has voiced his dissatisfaction with the teams who vetoed an extra DRS zone being added to this year’s Singapore Grand Prix circuit.
The Marina Bay Street Circuit has been revamped, with four corners removed towards the end of the lap, but Hamilton is not convinced that it will necessarily lead to more overtaking.
“All the drivers, we all requested [the fourth DRS zone] from the FIA,” said the Mercedes star. “The FIA asked all the teams and there’s a couple of teams that turned it down.
“So in the drivers’ briefing we’ll try to bring it up. But the teams should be for more racing, not against it. It’s interesting to have a few teams that are against it. But we’ll discuss it and try.”
Wolff regrets Verstappen jibe
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has admitted that taking a dig at Max Verstappen after the Italian Grand Prix was not his smartest move.
Wolff played down the Dutchman’s achievement after he won his 10th consecutive Grand Prix at Monza, claiming that numbers are ‘just for Wikipedia’.
“Well obviously when you look at the comments in the circumstances you can think about was it the most intelligent thing that I could have said and maybe not,” he told Sky Sports in Singapore.
Ferrari dominate again
It’s been the perfect Friday for Ferrari as they topped the timesheets once again FP2, comfortably quicker than the rest of the field.
George Russell was the closest to Carlos Sainz’s benchmark, but he was still over two-tenths slower.
Red Bull’s perfect record may well be coming to an end too unless they can fix things overnight with neither Sergio Perez or Max Verstappen able to find strong pace.
Qualifying tomorrow could be must-watch TV…
Sainz and Verstappen close to crashing
Temperatures are rising in FP2 with Carlos Sainz jumping on team radio to complain about a slow-moving Max Verstappen.
Ferrari topped the timesheet in FP1 and they were quick once again in the night session.
Sainz was on another hot lap when he had to make a quick move off line to avoid driving into Verstappen.
“I nearly crashed into this guy!” Sainz shouted on team radio.
Wolff backs Mercedes junior for F1 seat
Toto Wolff believes Mercedes junior Frederik Vesti “deserves” a seat in F1 next year, especially if he manages to win the F2 title this year.
The young Dane is currently second to Theo Pourchaire in the standings with just one race weekend remaining.
And Wolff has seen enough from Vesti to indicate he’s ready to make the next step into F1.
“But Frederik deserves to sit in an F1 car,” says Wolff. “When you win the F2 championship you can say that. We’ll see where that takes him but he did a very good job when he was in our car.”
‘Those comments weren’t right’
Red Bull boss Christian Horner believes Helmut Marko has learnt his lesson from his offensive comments about Sergio Perez.
“Those comments weren’t right,” Horner told Sky Sports F1.
“Helmut quickly recognised that and apologised for that both publicly and directly to Sergio. He spoke to Sergio directly about it.”
Marko wants Hamilton title stripped
Helmut Marko has used Lewis Hamilton’s comments against him in supporting Felipe Massa’s bid to steal the 2008 World Championship.
The Brazilian driver wants to overturn the result of the 2008 championship after he lost out to Hamilton in heartbreaking fashion.
Marko was left devastated at seeing Massa’s celebrations cut short by Hamilton and feels the British driver should yield to Massa’s demands.
“It was terrible to see Massa celebrating for 20 seconds that he had won the title in Brazil, and then suddenly it was all gone,” he told Austrian publication Kronen Zeitung. “I would love to see him win the title – and Hamilton, for whom records are not so important, would then have one less.”
FULL STORY
Brundle hits out at ‘odd’ Marko
Sky Sports F1 pundit Martin Brundle has taken aim at Helmut Marko for his “odd” decision to target one of Red Bull’s own drivers in Sergio Perez with his recent offensive remark.
The Red Bull advisor has taken on heavy criticism for suggesting Perez’s poor form this year was due to him hailing from ‘South America’ – not only an offensive claim, but a false one as Mexico sits in North America.
Perez has since accepted Marko’s apology, but Brundle can’t understand why Marko made the comments in the first place.
“First of all, why would you be derogatory about one of your own drivers in a team that costs hundreds of millions a year to run?” Brundle said
“It seems a little bit odd to say the least. It’s completely unacceptable to broad-brush in a negative way people, continents, regions, countries in that way.”
McLaren promising start
McLaren’s upgrades for this weekend are clearly paying dividends as Lando Norris is the quickest by a big margin in the early stages of FP1.
They’ve come into this weekend with a host of upgrades including a new front-wing endplate, new floor as well as an updated rear wing among other things.
Norris has all nine upgrades on his car while Oscar Piastri only has a few of them on his car.
Verstappen tipped to end run
Giedo van der Garde has tipped Max Verstappen to break his Singapore Grand Prix duck by winning Sunday’s race.
The Dutchman has never won the Singapore Grand Prix and endured a difficult race in 2022.
But Verstappen’s form and dominance this year gives Van der Garde confidence his winning run will continue this weekend.
“I think that if Max just has a good weekend, he will take the win,” Van der Garde told RacingNews365.
Ecclestone ‘afraid’
Felipe Massa has hit out at Bernie Ecclestone for dismissing his legal case, insisting the former F1 supremo is ‘afraid’ of what may come out.
Ecclestone doesn’t think Massa will get anywhere with his legal case, but the former Ferrari driver is not backing down.
“Ecclestone only decided to say something after he saw the seriousness of our case and that we won’t accept this stain on the sport,” he told Motorsport.
“He’s probably afraid of everything that will come out with the lawsuits. It doesn’t matter, as we’ve said many times, our goal is the trophy.”
Verstappen’s dig at Wolff
Max Verstappen is glad Toto Wolff doesn’t work for Red Bull afte the Austrian’s latest dig at the Red Bull team.
Wolff has been reluctant to lavish praise on Verstappen this year and he played down the Dutchman’s success after the Italian Grand Prix, where Mercedes themselves struggled to compete.
“They didn’t have the best race there, so obviously he was still p***** about that,” Verstappen said.
“It sometimes seems like he is an employee of our team, but fortunately that is not the case. I think it’s more important to focus on yourself. That’s what we did when they were so dominant.”
Hamilton wants F1 rival punished
Lewis Hamilton doesn’t feel Helmut Marko should be able to get away with a simple apology for his “completely unacceptable” remark about Sergio Perez earlier this month.
Hamilton said: “I think this is not something that you just apologise and it’s all okay. I think there needs to be more done.
“I think teams have, when they’ve had individuals from, particularly drivers, make comments but some individuals in the back, they usually are removed or at least they put out a quote and say they don’t support that kind of thing.”
Good morning
Hello and welcome back to Express Sport’s live blog looking ahead to this weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix.
There’s some anticipation in the paddock that Red Bull could be pushed hard, potentially bringing their perfect record to an end.
All will be revealed in today’s two practice sessions.
Stay tuned for live updates throughout the day.
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