FP1 at round 17 of the 2026 F1 season has been completed at the Singapore GP, view the full session report here.
As it is a Sprint weekend, teams had only an hour of practice ahead of SQ later in the day. At the start of the session, everyone went out on hard tyres aside from the Cadillacs on mediums.
Championship leader Kimi Antonelli led the way, clocking a 1:33.830 to be fastest by 0.034s from Charles Leclerc. George Russell — who will start at the back and is using the older spec package — was a further 0.022s behind. Hadjar, Piastri, Norris and Hamilton completed the big 7, as Nico Hülkenberg was ahead of Max Verstappen. Pierre Gasly rounded out the top 10.
Before the switch to softer tyres, Liam Lawson moved into 9th. Fernando Alonso was 12th as Aston Martin looked competitive once again.
Unfortunately for Nico Hülkenberg, he did not get a run in as a gearbox issue stopped him just after pit exit and his session was done.
The first big name on softs was George Russell and he clocked a 1:32.864. Not long after, Oscar Piastri went purple in Sectors 2 and 3 but missed out on P1 by 0.034s.
As the Ferraris appeared, Lewis Hamilton went top on a 1:32.821, with Charles Leclerc 0.150s away in P4. On a second push lap, the Aussie moved back into 2nd with a purple Sector 3, 0.017s slower than car #44.
Russell tops FP1 at the 2026 F1 Singapore GP
However, George Russell put in a stonking final sector on his second lap, logging a 1:32.274 to put half a second into the field. Nonetheless, a purple middle Sector from World Champion Lando Norris moved him within 0.273s. At the end, Charles Leclerc split them as he finished up 0.198s behind the Mercedes. Hamilton and Piastri completed the top 5 as they all ran on softs.
Behind them, Verstappen, Antonelli, Hadjar, Gasly and Lawson completed the top 10. The Dutch driver led the medium tyre charge, finishing up 0.732s away from the Brit. The championship leader was on an improvement but went straight on at Turn 16 in the last couple of minutes.
Exiting Turn 10, the seven-time World Champion had a huge snap of oversteer but managed to avoid the wall. He did have to abandon his lap.
