Lewis Hamilton pipped Max Verstappen to lead the first practice session ahead of Formula 1’s 2022 Singapore Grand Prix while Charles Leclerc ran third after early Ferrari unreliability.
The Mercedes driver, who had complained about the difficult drivability of his car early on, bolted on a fresh set of red-walled soft tyres and ran fastest by a slender 0.084 seconds.
Perez clocked fourth for Red Bull, which along with Aston Martin is suspected to have breached the 2021 budget cap, while Russell was fifth over Sainz.
Alpine’s effort would be led by Esteban Ocon in seventh as Stroll slid to eighth over Pierre Gasly and Alonso. Sebastian Vettel nicked 11th ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, who has not received the wealth of McLaren upgrades for this weekend.
Behind Valtteri Bottas, Magnussen and Yuki Tsunoda was Alex Albon in 16th, the Thai-Brit returning for the Marina Bay weekend after missing the Italian GP with appendicitis before then suffering respiratory failure.
