Championship leader Oscar Piastri went fastest Saturday (AEST) in a chaotic second practice session for the Singapore Grand Prix punctuated by two crashes, red flags and a bizarre pit lane shunt.
Piastri sped round in 1min 30.714sec, 0.132sec ahead of RB’s Isack Hadjar with Max Verstappen’s Red Bull third just 0.11sec further back.
It was a return to form for the Australian, who crashed last time out in Baku but managed to avoid the trouble at the Marina Bay Circuit to top the time sheets.
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“I found my feet on the medium at the end there and then the soft felt good,” said Piastri, who lamented that 22 minutes of the session were lost to stoppages.
“Obviously not much representative race running,” said the Australian, who leads the title race by 25 points from his McLaren teammate Lando Norris, and by 69 over Max Verstappen in third.
“But the car’s been in a good place, and I feel like I’ve learned a lot today. That’s the aim of practice. So it’s been a good day.”
Pitlane CHAOS as Leclerc rams Norris! | 01:21
It came after an opening session that maybe saw the pressure getting to him to start this weekend, after he fired off a quick spray at seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton.
With just over 14 minutes remaining in the hour-long opening practice session, Piastri had only recorded the eighth fastest time when he was attempting to set a fast lap.
Right as the Aussie began his flying lap, he came across Ferrari veteran Lewis Hamilton, who appeared to do his best to get out of the way, pulling right over to the right of the track.
Yet Piastri still wasn’t pleased, saying over team radio: “Ferrari will invent mirrors one day, I hope.”
The Sky Sports commentators then debated the moment as they watched a series of replays.
“This is on board with Lewis, and we do see him look in his mirrors on the left, don’t you, just before Oscar gets there,” Rachel Brookes said.
“So he sees him and gets out of the way, but you think he should have seen him sooner?”
Jensen Button seemed to have a bet each way when he replied: “Ah, yes. He was on a slow lap.
“So the thing to do it seems, which has only been the last couple of years, but as soon as they cross that finish line, they move to the inside, don’t they, and slow down.
“But I still feel he moved out of the way. It’s not nice having a car on the outside because if you lock up you end up in them.
“But he still had a clear run.”
SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE – OCTOBER 03: Oscar Piastri of Australia and McLaren prior to practice ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Singapore at Marina Bay Street Circuit on October 03, 2025 in Singapore, Singapore. (Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
The session was first halted by George Russell crashing his Mercedes at turn 16. When the cars got going again, RB’s Liam Lawson found the barriers on the penultimate corner to bring out another red flag.
As cars vied for position in the pit lane for the restart Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari was released into Norris, shunting the McLaren into the pit lane wall.
The McLaren was hastily pushed back into its box to fit a new front wing with Norris eventually fifth fastest.
He was sandwiched by the Aston Martins of Fernando Alonso in fourth and Lance Stroll in sixth.
– ‘Difficult day’ for Norris –
“Cost the team a bit of money, which is a shame,” said Norris, who was a dominant winner at last year’s Singapore Grand Prix.
“Just a difficult day for me, not feeling too great with the car. I’m missing all of the feelings I had here last year. So plenty of things to work on. Just a bad day.
“Oscar’s quick so I’ve got nothing to complain about, bar just not doing a very good job,” said Norris.
Esteban Ocon, Carlos Sainz, Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton rounded out the top 10. Verstappen has won the last two races, in Monza and Baku, to edge into the title picture with seven races and three sprints to go.
But four-time world champion Verstappen, runner-up to Norris last year, has never won in Singapore in eight previous attempts.
“We’re just getting up to speed with things, but the car was not too bad. In general, I was quite satisfied,” said Verstappen.
“We definitely need a bit more pace to fight up at the front tomorrow.” Russell was at a loss to explain his crash.
“A bit of a weird one to be honest,” said the Mercedes driver. “Thankfully I went in front-end on and didn’t do too much damage, but it was game over.”
– ‘Heat Hazard’ –
The race was on Thursday declared an official Formula One “Heat Hazard”, invoking a new rule to help drivers beat the tropical heat in Singapore.
It means drivers will be able to wear newly developed cooling vests because ambient temperatures are expected to be 31 Celsius or higher.
Many drivers were seen trying out the vests and their associated maze of cooling tubes under their fireproof race suits.
The air temperature for both Saturday sessions hovered around 28C, cooler than usual in Singapore, but with humidity at a very uncomfortable 80 percent.
In first practice, Alex Albon was forced to retire after less than 10 minutes when the rear brakes on his Williams caught fire.
His engineers managed to rebuild the car in time for the second session where Albon finished 13th.