Norris quickest as Verstappen bounces back in Singapore practice

SINGAPORE: Lando Norris stormed to the quickest lap by almost half a second in Saturday´s final practice for the Singapore Grand Prix as under-pressure championship leader Max Verstappen finally found some pace.

The McLaren driver put together a scintillating lap of 1min 29.64sec around the Marina Bay Circuit, 0.479sec faster than George Russell´s Mercedes. Oscar Piastri in the second McLaren was third fastest, a further three-tenths of a second adrift.

Verstappen had been badly off the pace in Friday´s opening two sessions but the three-time world champion saw overnight modifications to his Red Bull pay off with a lap of 1:30.540 for a much-improved fourth on the timesheets. All indications after Friday´s first two sessions had been that the qualifying battle later would shape up into a straight fight between McLaren and Ferrari. But the Ferrari pair of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were only fifth and sixth, with Lewis Hamilton´s Mercedes seventh.

The top 10 was rounded out by the Williams pair of Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto, followed by Aston Martin´s Fernando Alonso.

Singapore was the only race Red Bull did not win last year in a dominant season and they come to the Formula One night race this year in a fight with McLaren, who are 20 points ahead, and third-placed Ferrari for the teams´ title.