Verstappen lead most of FP1 before Hamilton bests him at the end

Lewis Hamilton finished the session on top for the first time this season. The seven-time world champion was just 0.084 seconds ahead of the Red Bull of Max Verstappen, who was another three-tenths ahead of Charles Leclerc, as we finished with three constructors in the top three. As their respective teammates followed in fourth through sixth.

Verstappen led from the front early on

From lap one, Verstappen really was the quickest driver around the Lion City Circuit. No one could come close, had about a second buffer to anyone else for the whole first half an hour. Although perhaps not a surprising amount of speed from the Dutchman but the Ferrari and his teammate Sergio Perez couldn't seem to hold a candle to the reigning world champion early on. It took til the last 20 minutes for someone to get within a second, his teammate was seven-tenths off. Then in the last ten minutes, Leclerc got within half a second. Then Hamilton went fastest with less the five minutes. All of a sudden the Singapore GP came alive.

Russell tight to the wall

George Russell grazed the wall in the first fifteen minutes of the session although he escaped without any damage despite a thorough check of the Merc. Although the team found nothing wrong with the Silver Arrow, he was back on track almost immediately. Lance Stroll was not as lucky with his contact with the wall as he broke the rear axle at the exit at turn five, as he was running in fourth at the time of the incident. This incident caused a red flag.

Meanwhile, a huge moment from Carlos Sainz at the final corner almost saw a very fast crash, but the Spaniard does well to keep it out of the fall and keep his Ferrari going.

Leclerc brake issues

Leclerc went out pretty much as soon as possible in FP1, but unfortunately for the Ferrari man was on the radio straight away reporting brake issues. Which meant he went straight back into the pits and didn't manage to set early lap times like the rest of the grid. Probably one of the things that Ferrari and Leclerc would have wanted to avoid this weekend, given the championship can be confirmed for Verstappen this weekend.