Singapore – EL 1: Red Bull at ease, Mercedes quick on soft tyres but discreet on ultra-tardres

After the shortest weekend of the entire season, it’s time for Singapore and the most demanding weekend for drivers and machines! As is tradition in the Southeast Asian city-state, the 22 drivers met at the end of the day (6 p.m. local time) for the start of the first practice session.

A concrete evaluation of the Halo at the beginning of the session.

Among the quickest to hit the track were the two Mercedes themselves. It must be said that the reference team is starting its most challenging Grand Prix of the calendar. Remember the troubles faced by Rosberg (4th last year) and Hamilton (retired due to accelerator issues), who never managed to fully exploit their W07. In any case, the first quarter-hour of this session was favorable to them. After more than fifteen minutes of running, Hamilton posted a time of 1:47.436 on ultra-soft tires. The leader of the drivers’ standings took the opportunity to test it for the first time in a race weekend. Interestingly, he was even faster than his teammate, who was not equipped with the Halo!

Similarly, Nico Hülkenberg, as well as Fernando Alonso, completed several timed laps with this protection system.

The first alert of the day came from Jenson Button, who was briefly stopped on track just before the pit lane entry. Consequently, his McLaren was pushed by marshals to cover the few meters to his pit box.

Fernando’s car returns to the garage; JB’s being pushed back to the garage after his car rolled to a halt. #FP1 pic.twitter.com/IMdJsCva5k

— McLaren (@McLarenF1) 16 septembre 2016

The leaders are neck and neck after the first set of ultra-softs.

We had to wait half an hour to see a car interpose between the Mercedes. It was none other than Sebastian Vettel, last year’s winner of the Singapore round. The German driver took the opportunity to hone his Ferrari along the walls, especially coming out of the corner in the last sector, just like Max Verstappen did a few minutes earlier.

“I brushed the wall,” reports Vettel

That’s a proper hit! 💥 Sparks fly at Singapore#FP1 🇸🇬 #F1NightRace pic.twitter.com/G2DlBuLqMN

— Formula 1 (@F1) 16 septembre 2016

But Vettel was only 0.006 seconds behind Lewis Hamilton. The same observation for the Dutchman, who moved up to third place, then to the top at mid-session, with a time of 1:47.335, achieved obviously with the purple tires.

At the very bottom of the standings, Romain Grosjean had yet to make an appearance, due to a problem with low intake pressure. Fernando Alonso was also still immobilized. However, after the mid-session, Alonso was finally able to complete his first timed lap while the Haas driver remained in his garage for the entire session.

Hamilton and Rosberg very fast on softs, ultra-softs in question.

For the others, it was time to fit a second set of tires. For Rosberg, confidence was there, with a time of 1:46.513, which was 0.822 faster than Verstappen, who was on ultra-softs!

But his direct rivals continued with a second set of ultra-softs. The benchmark was passed from hand to hand. After a few minutes of battle, it went back to Daniel Ricciardo, then to Max Verstappen, who posted a very fine 1:45.823.

The two Red Bulls were then dominating the Ferraris on the same tires. But the laps by the Mercedes on soft tires were also impressive: Lewis Hamilton was doing better than Nico Rosberg. Only half a second separated Ricciardo and Hamilton as the one-hour mark was reached.

The information gleaned in this first session was very interesting, particularly given the slight difference between the ultra-soft and super-soft tires. In this regard, we saw for example Carlos Sainz driving faster with the red compounds! Let’s recall here that Vettel and Räikkönen each brought nine sets of ultra-softs, with only two and three sets of super-softs respectively.

Far from these considerations, Romain Grosjean’s mechanics continued to dismantle his Haas, notably extracting the engine from the car. Worse than a lack of running, a penalty looms for the Frenchman… Frustrating considering Esteban Gutierrez’s good performance, provisionally 10th on a machine that has been improving since Monza.

On track, Jenson Button was complaining about various issues with gear shifting, particularly during acceleration.

Rosberg at fault in the ruthless eighteenth turn!

A track briefly under yellow flag conditions… after Nico Rosberg’s tap with the wall! Approaching head-on into the corner leading to the small tunnel, driver number 6 arrived too quickly, making his first mistake of the weekend. The German lost his front wing in the process and also suffered a punctured front-left tire. Even though he was able to return to the pits, it was enough to prematurely end his session.

Late drama in #FP1 😯 Rosberg has lost his front wing after a run-in with the Turn 18 barriers #F1NightRace pic.twitter.com/bqi0mXjxAM

— Formula 1 (@F1) 16 septembre 2016

The end of the session, dedicated to long stints, was thus carried out with only 18 drivers, Rosberg and Grosjean sidelined as well as the two Saubers who did not go out to finish. The last laps once again highlighted the impressive speed of the Red Bull on an urban circuit. At the top of the standings, Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo started the fifteenth round of the season in the best possible way. However, a question mark remains over the exact performance of the Mercedes on ultra-soft tires, which will undoubtedly be clarified throughout the various sessions!

Behind the top three, it’s also worth noting the encouraging performance of the Toro Rosso team, with Sainz in 7th and Kyvat in 8th.

Here is the complete ranking of this first session:

PROVISIONAL CLASSIFICATION: END OF #FP1

The Red Bulls separated by just 0.049s on the clock 👀#F1NightRace 🌃 #F1 pic.twitter.com/zCx0jJ47KF

— Formula 1 (@F1) 16 septembre 2016

Join us this afternoon around 5 p.m. for the full recap of the second session of these free practice sessions in Singapore!