Riccardo nips Vettel in opening Singapore GP practice

Singapore

Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo turned the fastest lap to lead opening practice for the Singapore GP Friday. His time of 1m42.486s was 0.1s up on Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel.

Max Verstappen in the 2nd Red Bull was third while Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes and Sergio Perez in the Force India rounded out the top-5.

Red Bull were fastest in FP1 this time last year – and Ricciardo came within a yard or two of victory. Promising signs then – will he or Verstappen be in the mix come Sunday?

Giovinazzi, filling in for Magnussen for FP1 only, has looked impressive – despite the comparative experience gap he's just 0.3s slower than stable mate Grosjean.

Interestingly, early pacesetter Hamilton was not far behind – 0.415s – as he set the fourth best time of 1m 42.904s in his Mercedes.

That suggests at this stage that there could be a six-way fight for honors in qualifying tomorrow, though it's early days and the track was still very green after torrential rain earlier this morning.

As Bottas and Kimi struggled with their respective set-ups – after changes the former said his car felt “undriveable" on his final run –Perez annexed the fifth best time for Force India ahead of them both, as Alonso was eighth for McLaren. Hulkenberg was ninth as Kvyat completed the top 10 for Renault and Toro Rosso respectively.

Kvyat was partnered for the first time by Indonesian Sean Gelael as part of his FP1 deal, and he lapped in 1m 47.570s for the 18th fastest time. Meanwhile at Haas Antonio Giovinazzi was back again, in Kevin Magnussen’s VF-18. As his team mate Romain Grosjean struggled throughout and had offs in Turns 1, 2 and 18, the Italian finished on his tail with 1m 46.782s against 1m 46.456s.

Down at Williams, Lance Stroll’s FW40 is being fitted with a new gearbox.

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