Mercedes
Mercedes opted against running the soft tyre in FP1, one of just two teams not to do so. As such, their drivers were a little down the order, with Russell narrowly ahead of his team mate. Antonelli did have one hairy moment on the mediums, getting a big slide into Turn 1 that could have taken him perilously close to the barriers. But Russell actually went into them, as he got it all wrong into Turn 16 at the start of FP2 and crashed heavily, wiping off his front wing. That ended his session, and the resultant red flags from both that incident and a later one meant Antonelli did not get any representative running on the soft tyre either.
George Russell – FP1: 1:32.139, P11; FP2: 1:33.231, P20
“That was an interrupted first day of running here in Singapore. FP1 was challenging as we struggled to get the tyres switched on and get a handle on the balance. That improved for FP2, but my session ended in the wall with only a handful of laps completed. It was a weird accident and I’m not entirely sure what happened. I braked earlier than I had on previous laps but lost the rear; thankfully the car went into the barrier nose in, so it didn’t do too much damage. It was annoying to lose the rest of the session so apologies to the team.
“Despite not getting our full programme completed, the pace we saw seemed decent. We didn’t put a lap time on the board but when we put all our sectors together, it felt good. It’s not been our best Friday but in Singapore things can change quickly and I’m looking forward to getting back on track tomorrow.”
Kimi Antonelli – FP1: 1:32.399, P14; FP2: 1:32.719, P18
“The final result on the timing screen doesn’t reflect how today went for us or what we could have achieved. In FP2 I had to abort my one attempt on the Soft compound as the red flag came out. I was into the final sector and was looking strong with a lap that would have put us near the top of the times at that point. We can take encouragement from that therefore and hopefully carry that pace into the rest of the weekend.
“I’ve felt good in the car today. We’ve still got things we can improve but obviously, with it being my first time racing here, there is a lot of room for improvement with my driving too. If we can take a step forward with both the car and my driving, then I think we can be in with a chance of fighting for a good grid position tomorrow. It’s an enjoyable track, I felt at ease straight away, and I am looking forward to tomorrow and Sunday.”
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director
“Singapore, with its tricky street circuit layout and the hot and humid conditions, is always a challenge. The first day of running this weekend proved no different. As usual, FP1 saw the drivers getting to grips with the balance of the car whilst the track rubbered in. Whilst this session, along with FP3, is usually unrepresentative of the conditions we face in qualifying and the race, cloud cover and a relatively cool ambient temperature made it more relevant than normal. We were struggling to get the front tyres to come in and didn’t really make a lot of progress on that issue during the session but were able to make some more substantial changes ahead of FP2. That seemed to put the car in a better place.
“Unfortunately, FP2 was a largely disrupted session. George only managed six laps before his day was ended after a snap into turn 16 put him in the barrier. Kimi meanwhile was set to post a strong Soft tyre lap before he had to back off for a yellow in the penultimate corner that eventually turned into a second red flag. We opted to focus on the long run to close the hour, in contrast with the rest of the grid. Whilst that has left us near the bottom of the time sheets, it has allowed us to have a proper look at the long run balance and temperatures.”
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