F1 Singapore GP: Leclerc tops FP1 session interrupted by lizards
Lando Norris's first two flying laps led the way at the top of the times for much of the opening phase of the session, where the drivers built up to speed on the dusty course running the two harder compounds – oversteer rife in the slower opening turns early on.
The Ferrari drivers and Lewis Hamilton shuffled Norris back as their lengthy opening runs on the hards headed towards their conclusions, before the McLaren driver – fitted with mediums – surged back ahead with a 1m34.776s.
The pack headed back to the pits en masse just after the 20-minute mark of the one-hour session had been reached, after which Alpine's Pierre Gasly led the switch to the soft tyres approaching the halfway point.
His first lap did not better Norris's leading time on the mediums and when the majority of the rest headed out on the red-walled tyre, their preparation was interrupted by a yellow flag activation at Turn 8 lasting over two minutes as a lizard had ventured out onto the circuit.
Once it had moved on, George Russell and Sainz finally toppled Norris's medium effort with their opening softs flier, before the McLaren driver got back in front with a 1m33.522s after he had also taken the softs.
The big track evolution factor early in the Singapore weekend meant drivers were finding time even after a few laps on the softs, with Charles Leclerc going quickest on a 1m33.350s as the session ticked past its two-thirds distance mark.
Verstappen slotted into second a few moments later, 0.126s slower for Red Bull, the Dutchman, complaining that his RB19 was oversteering too much early on as he ran far back in the lower reaches of the top 10 and feeling it yet again had "very aggressive downshifts".
After many drivers had made a quicker trip back to the pits than during the earlier switch from the harder tyres to softs, Sainz edged ahead of Verstappen to trail Leclerc by under a tenth.
Approaching the final 10 minutes, Leclerc popped in a time that only just failed to beat his leading lap, after which a second lizard appearance slightly further down the track towards the Turn 9 left brought out another yellow flag – although this time it stayed out for a much shorter period.
Several drivers, including leaders Leclerc, Sainz and Verstappen, switched back to the hards for the final phase of FP1, where a lizard Russell claimed was different to the previous interrupting reptiles briefly entered the track also in the Turns 8/9 area.
In the final standings, Norris, running a series of McLaren updates not yet available for Oscar Piastri (19th) in the other MCL60, ended up fourth ahead of Hamilton and Russell.
Sergio Perez was seventh in the second Red Bull, ahead of Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso, with Yuki Tsunoda and Esteban Ocon rounding out the top 10 for AlphaTauri and Alpine respectively.
