Aston Martin's Alonso Tops Opening Session at Marina Bay

Marina Bay Street Circuit

3-5 October will see the race beginning at British Summer Time on Sunday.

Real-time commentary provided on digital platforms and official website.

Opening Round Highlights

The team's Fernando Alonso topped the times beating Monegasque driver and Dutch ace in first practice at the street circuit event.

The British team's title rivals Australian rookie and Lando Norris wrapped up the run in P5 and P6.

The young Australian was 0.217 seconds quicker than his teammate.

The experienced Spaniard was 0.150secs leading of Leclerc and over a quarter of a second faster than the Red Bull star.

Ferrari's seven-time champion was P4.

Team Strategies

Unlikely that the Silverstone-based team will be front-runners for the top spot.

That said, the team are confident of a better weekend on a tight circuit that is more suited to their vehicle, which performs better when high levels of downforce are required.

Double world title winner Fernando is also known as a street circuit master, and usually excels on the Singapore circuit.

However he was likely using a lighter load or a more aggressive setting than his rivals, or a combination, to post the fastest lap.

Session Details

Fellow driver Lance Stroll was a significant margin off the pace in the lower order.

The Canadian had issues with his cockpit during the initial runs and was also evaluating test items.

FP1 in Marina Bay is not reflective of conditions for qualifying and race as it is run in bright conditions in the daytime, while the shootout and the race are run after dark.

Points Situation

The McLaren driver is ahead of his teammate by 25 points with the final stretch left entering the weekend in Singapore.

The Woking-based team are set to clinch the constructors' championship on Sunday.

Single possibility they can miss out in Singapore is if Mercedes surpass them by thirty-one or Ferrari achieve that by 35.

Rival Teams

The energy drink brand's team are optimistic of a positive weekend after recent successes in Italy and Azerbaijan ahead of this weekend.

They were relieved when drizzle coming down before the session cleared by the point the cars took to the track on a track that had remained dry.

Team consultant the Austrian said ahead of practice that they wanted a dry hour to make a comprehensive start on fine-tuning their chassis settings for the event.

Miss Nicole Mccoy
Miss Nicole Mccoy

Award-winning journalist with a passion for uncovering truth and delivering accurate, timely news coverage.