The China Mail - Sainz leads Ferrari one-two as Verstappen struggles in Singapore

The Dutchman celebrated his 25th birthday Friday with a cake in the Red Bull team hospitality before the first session, then spent most of the second in the garage with mechanics working on his front suspension.

Verstappen, who can retain his Formula One world championship with a race win on Sunday if other results go his way, did emerge late in the hour-long session for one qualifying simulation lap.

His time of 1min 42.926sec was good enough only for fourth, 0.339sec behind Sainz who clocked 1:42.587 around the Marina Bay street circuit.

"In FP2 we wanted to try a few things but it took a bit longer than we thought," said Verstappen of the delay in getting out of the garage.

"So it's not really representative."

Leclerc posted a time of 1:42.795, 0.208sec behind his teammate, and the Mercedes of George Russell was third at 1:42.911.

Earlier Lewis Hamilton had sprung a surprise with the quickest time in the opening practice session of the first Singapore race weekend since 2019 because of the Covid pandemic.

- Albon encouraged -

It was the first time Hamilton had topped the timesheets this season, giving him hope of being able to score a first grand prix victory in 2022 and maintain his run of winning a race in every season since his 2007 debut.

But the seven-time world champion later struggled with stability over the bumps and kerbs which caused him to run wide on the last corner of his final flying lap to leave him fifth, 0.595sec adrift of Sainz.

Esteban Ocon's Alpine was sixth fastest, ahead of Alfa Romeo's Valtteri Bottas.

Spain's Fernando Alonso, who will start a record 350th grand prix on Sunday, one more than Kimi Raikkonen's previous all-time mark, was eighth fastest in his Alpine.

Red Bull had looked more competitive early but both cars suffered with set-up issues under lights in the night session with Sergio Perez ninth, 1.3sec behind Sainz.

Verstappen has an almost unassailable lead in the title chase but must win Sunday's race and see his closest rivals falter to clinch with five races to go, or the fight will move on to Japan next week.

Single-lap pace in qualifying is crucial at Singapore, where pole position is a huge advantage on the 23-turn Marina Bay Circuit that affords few opportunities to overtake.

Alex Albon was encouraged by completing two sessions in his Williams less than three weeks after appendicitis and complications from surgery.

The British-born Thai driver was 16th fastest in both, a severe test of his fitness in the heat and humidity of Singapore.

There was drama at the AlphaTauri garage when Pierre Gasly had to leap from his car with flames coming above his head, quickly extinguished by the pit crew. The Frenchman returned to the track a few minutes later unharmed.

F.Jackson--ThChM