Norris looks dominant after final Singapore F1 practice

Lando Norris heads into Singapore Grand Prix qualifying in a league of his own after final Formula 1 practice on Saturday.

Only Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc looked a threat to McLaren’s championship hopeful on Friday but he and Ferrari suddenly faded in FP3.

Leclerc aborted his first lap on new softs halfway through but only managed a disappointing second lap that was almost a second off Norris’s pace.

“The feeling is s**t,” said Leclerc. “We are very slow.” Following up in another radio message, he added: “I just have no grip.”

He will not be the only disappointed driver before Saturday evening’s qualifying session. In fact, of the frontrunners other than Norris – who was the only driver to go sub-1m30s with a 1m29.646s – only Mercedes driver George Russell had much to celebrate.

Russell was a more encouraging second-fastest for Mercedes after the team’s tough Friday, although he was still 0.479s off the pace and had a couple of quick trips down different escape roads on other laps as well.

The lead Mercedes managed to split the two McLarens as Oscar Piastri was well off team-mate Norris, 0.785s back in third.

HOW RED BULL FARED

That put him a tenth clear of Max Verstappen whose Red Bull looked much better on medium tyres in the first half of the session – which the world champion conveyed over the radio – but then struggled in the real qualifying simulations.

It looked like Verstappen had a lot more understeer to deal with on the soft tyres, but he fared much better than Sergio Perez who was left down in 15th, 1.8s off the pace.

That seemed anomalously bad given Perez fared better than Verstappen on Friday, so Red Bull should be targeting Q3 with both cars – although at this stage, it looks like a fight to even be on the second row.

Red Bull is at least back on terms with Ferrari and at least one Mercedes, though, after Lewis Hamilton had a difficult FP3.

If Russell’s pace is an indicator of what Mercedes can aim for then he might be able to challenge Piastri, who has trailed Norris all weekend, and on the evidence of FP3 the main question in qualifying is how they will line up behind the #4 car.

WILLIAMS LEADS THE REST

Behind the usual lead group, Williams is in position to consolidate its recent fine form on a track it has struggled at recently.

Alex Albon – who had an unusual misjudgement, clipping a wall through a kink and giving himself a puncture early in the session – and Franco Colapinto were eighth and ninth, although the midfield fight looks typically fierce.

Friday’s surprise package RB was less impressive as Yuki Tsunoda was only 11th and Daniel Ricciardo only 16th.

That allowed Fernando Alonso to sneak into 10th in his Aston Martin – with barely three tenths of a second covering Albon in eighth down to Kevin Magnussen’s Haas in 13th.