Norris ‘not doing very good job’ as Piastri fastest

McLaren’s Lando Norris said he had a “bad day” in Friday practice at the Singapore Grand Prix after setting fifth fastest time following a collision in the pit lane.

The Briton was 0.483 seconds slower than the pace-setter, his team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri, who leads Norris by 25 points in the championship.

Norris, who won Singapore from pole position last year, said: “A difficult day for me. Not feeling too great with the car, missing all the feelings I had here last year, plenty of things to work on. Just a bad day.

“Oscar’s quick so I have nothing to complain about, just not doing a very good job.”

Norris sounded unhappy with his performance over the radio in the car before speaking to media.

In a conversation with engineer Will Joseph in discussing run strategy, Norris said his lack of pace was down to “my driving”.

Before setting his fastest lap, Norris was hit by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in the pit lane in an incident which broke the McLaren’s front wing.

Norris shrugged the incident off, saying it “cost the team a bit of money, which is a shame”. Leclerc and Ferrari have been called to the stewards and are likely to be fined for an unsafe release.

Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar was second fastest in a session interrupted by two red flags for crashes, ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso.

The two incidents that led to red flags were crashes by Mercedes’ George Russell and Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson.

Russell lost control on the entry to Turn 16, and nosed into the barriers, breaking his front wing. He missed the rest of the session because the car required a full system reset.

Lawson crashed on the exit of the same chicane, clouting the wall out of Turn 17, breaking his right-side wheels and coming to rest in the pit lane entry.

Piastri looked and sounded confident as he returned to the track after his incident-strewn weekend in Baku, in which he crashed in practice and qualifying, jumped the start and then crashed on the first lap of the race.

He was making jokes about the Ferrari drivers getting in his way in the first session, saying: “I’m sure Ferrari will invent mirrors some day.”

And at the end of the second session he made a tongue-in-cheek remark about the driver cooling vest causing difficulties in the cockpit.

Red Bull, who have struggled in Singapore for the past couple of seasons, felt they had had a positive day.

Verstappen, the winner of the past two races at Monza and Baku, said: “The car was not too bad, a bit like the last two weekends. There were no major problems.

“Tried a few things, some were good and we just need to try and optimise that a bit more. In general quite satisfied, but definitely need a bit more pace to fight up at the front tomorrow.”

The disrupted session meant drivers did not have time to do their race-simulation runs at the end, so a clear indication of form did not emerge.

Alonso was quick all day in the Aston Martin on a track where the car’s weaknesses are not exposed and where he has always been strong.

But the team would be expected to slip down the field on Saturday.

Alonso said: “Seems little bit better than the previous grands prix. Let’s try to fine-tune the set-up. It’s still not in a happy place, especially on the front axle. Still a little bit too much understeer. Something to work tonight but a good start.

“Since the first lap we were in a comfy place and were able to find the limits quite quickly.

“Let’s see if we can be in Q3 tomorrow and points on Sunday. Both sessions in the top four is probably the best Friday so far but sometimes Friday we run with a different programme or different fuel, and the real test is tomorrow.”

His team-mate Lance Stroll was sixth fastest, 0.345secs off the Spaniard, followed by Haas driver Esteban Ocon, Williams’ Carlos Sainz and the Ferraris of Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton.