Practice two in Singapore ended once again with a McLaren on top, Lando Norris ended the session in first as he sets his sights on reigning three time World Champion Max Verstappen who floundered down in 15th.
Verstappen was vocal on the issues his Red Bull is facing as not only did he finish the session in 15th, he was also some 1.2 seconds off the pace.
it’s no longer struggling as much on bumps and kerbs as it had been previously, instead lacking a more fundamental feature in a general lack of grip.
“Difficult. It’s just not having the grip that we would like, so we have a few things to look at there. It’s less of a problem, to be honest. I was not really struggling with the bumps or the kerbs, just general grip.”
Verstappen wasn’t the only one to struggle with his car on Friday as Charles Leclerc, whilst in a lot better mood than the dutchman, said following the session that he was struggling the balance of his Ferrari.
“Just a bit more balance in the car and putting everything together in terms of driving and then we should be in a good place for tomorrow.”
Unlike Verstappen, Leclerc was not over a second off the pace. He wasn’t even a tenth off, finishing the session in second only 0.058 behind Norris’ McLaren.
The pace setter for FP2 was Norris who seemed to be the only one who was actually happy with the handling of his car, claiming there wasn’t much left in his car to push.
“I feel like there’s not a lot we can change, honestly, but just trying to perfect a little bit, try and iron out a couple of little things and push it in a slightly quicker direction. It’s all we can do.
“It was a nice lap from me, not a lot more in it, honestly, so I felt like I got a lot out of Friday. But normally I prefer not being so good and then always having a bit extra going into Saturday!”
This has worried the Brit as he mentioned the prowess of Ferrari and Leclerc around street tracks and is hoping they don’t still have a lot left to show in qualifying tomorrow.
“Charles is very good at street circuits – we’ve seen in Baku, we’ve seen in Monaco what he’s capable of doing, I’m sure he’s probably quite happy with his lap. If he wasn’t happy with his lap, I’m quite worried for tomorrow!”
