Singapore, FP2: Hamilton beats Verstappen to the top of the timesheets

Lewis Hamilton beat Max Verstappen by a little under two tenths of a second to take over from the Dutchman at the top of the timesheets in the second practice session for the Singapore Grand Prix. 0.184s in the second Formula 1 free practice session for the Singapore Grand Prix.

Verstappen’s team-mate Alex Albon was the first of the expected front runners to bolt on soft tyres for a qualifying run and the Thai driver posted a good time of 1:39.943 on his first race weekend at the Singapore Grand Prix.

His time was soon beaten by Verstappen, however, and then Hamilton took over at the top with a time of 1:39.773s that stood until the end of the session.

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas also managed to squeeze past Albon’s time, with the German taking third place ahead of the Finn. Vettel’s time, though, was some way off Hamilton’s pace and the Ferrari driver finished eight tenths of a second adrift of the Briton’s P1 time. Bottas took fourth, three tenths of a second behind Vettel.

Sixth place in the session went to Belgian and Italian GP winner Charles Leclerc who was bouncing back after losing most of the first session to a gearbox problem. The Monegasque racer finished seven hundredths of a second behind Albon though the Ferrari driver’s lap was somewhat compromised by traffic.

Best of the rest status in FP2 was taken by McLaren’s Carlos Sainz, with the Spaniard taking seventh place 0.179s ahead of Renault works driver Nico Hulkenberg. Lando Norris was ninth in the second McLaren and the top-10 order was rounded out by Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly.