Singapore GP: McLaren's Norris comfortably tops final practice

Lando Norris was at the top of his game in Saturday’s final practice session for the Singapore Grand Prix, the McLaren driver setting the quickest lap by a wide margin.

While the session was not representative of the conditions that drivers will find in qualifying later on at Marina Bay, Norris’ significant 0.479s advantage over Mercedes’ George Russell in second place was indicative of McLaren’s strength.

Oscar Piastri completed the top three, while Max Verstappen in P4 was happier with his Red Bull’s behavior despite concluding the session 0.894s behind Norris.

It was a leisurely start to FP3 with Aston Martin’s drivers the only early runners on the track, although Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll were joined by a lizard which chose an untimely moment to indulge in a track walk.

Eventually the local critter – which is a protected species in Singapore – triggered a red flag to allow for its safe evacuation.

As the track went green, traffic quickly swelled. Verstappen, encouraged by his car’s overnight improvements, set the early benchmark ahead of Norris and Leclerc, with all three drivers shod with the medium rubber.

Like yesterday, as the track rubbered in, everyone upped the pace, leading to a few dodgy, near terminal moments for several drivers, including Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Russell.

Meanwhile, still running on the medium compound, Leclerc went quicker than Verstappen and Norris, lowering the benchmark to 1m31.525s.

Williams’ Franco Colapinto offered a glimpse of the soft tyre’s potential as he popped up to P6, just 0.294s adrift from Leclerc, which incited the front-runners to mount the red-walled tyre.

The intensity grew as Russell went top with a mean 1m30.125s, but two purple sectors by Norris indicated a blistering pace by the McLaren charger who promptly shaved almost half a second off Russell’s best.

Piastri slotted into third, but Leclerc and Sainz’s flyers on the soft were only good for P10 and P11. The pair pressed on and eventually progressed to 5th and 6th, but their SF-24 was evidently not as hooked up as McLaren and Mercedes’ contenders, or even Red Bull.

The session thus concluded with Norris heading into qualifying with the fastest lap of the weekend, the Briton topping proceedings by a comfortable 0.479s margin over Russell.

Thereafter followed Piastri, Verstappen and both Ferrari drivers who completed the top six. Lewis Hamilton in seventh place was unable once again to match his teammate’s pace, while Alex Albon, Colapinto and Alonso rounded off the top ten.

RB’s Yuki Tsunoda led the second half of the field but Daniel Ricciardo was only 17th, the Aussie preceding a disappointing Lance Stroll and the Saubers of Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu who closed out the field.

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