16/09/2016
NEWS STORY
Ahead of today's opening free practice session, the air temperature is 31 degrees C, whilst the track temperature is 38 degrees.
The F1 circus said goodbye to Europe with Lewis Hamilton leading teammate Nico Rosberg by just two points, and with the Briton fearing that the issue is not yet resolved one wonders what the next few races have in store for us.
It's fair to say that last year's Singapore weekend is one that Mercedes, and in particular Hamilton, will want to forget, the German team suffering a catalogue of errors.
Even if Mercedes has learned from its mistakes, many fancy Red Bull this weekend, with Daniel Ricciardo widely tipped to open his 2016 win account.
While we don't expect the intervention of the weather gods, fact is, Singapore is a great leveller and has produced more than a few surprises over the years and we expect that to be the case again this year.
Contrary to previous reports, F1's new boss Chase Carey is here this weekend, accompanied by Bernie Ecclestone.
There are no reserve drivers in action today, for obvious reasons.
This weekend marks Nico Rosberg's 200th Grand Prix, and also that of Toro Rosso.
The Faenza team is running back to back tests this morning, with Sainz and Kvyat trying the old and new aero packages as the Italian outfit tries to discover what has gone wrong in recent races.
Also, despite attention now almost fully focussed on 2017, a number of teams are still bringing updates, none more so than Haas which has a new front wing together with modifications to the floor and the brake ducts.
McLaren is running a new front wing, so no surprise that it is smothered in flo-vis.
Being a street circuit the ultrasoft tyres are back, along with the supersoft and soft.
As was the case in Belgium and Italy, a number of drivers are trying the halo in this session, among them Alonso and Hamilton.
The lights go green and Grosjean leads the way, followed by Palmer, Gutierrez, Alonso and Vettel.
A good mixtures of ultras and supers, while the Force India duo stick to softs.
Just a couple of minutes in and Button is travelling very slowly. "It's stopped," he sighs, "we're not going to make it back". The McLaren grinds to a halt, just a tantalising 100 metres from the pitlane entrance.
As the car is pushed to back to the pitlane - a rare bit of good luck for Button - the VSC is deployed.
Once everyone has completed their installation runs and returned to the pits, the two Mercedes drivers head out.
Rosberg posts the first time of the weekend (47.936), with Hamilton posting a 2:07.853 shortly after.
Next time around Hamilton improves with a 47.436 to go quickest by exactly 0.500s.
As Gutierrez becomes the third driver to posts a time (50.744), Sainz clouts the pit-wall with his front wing as he leaves his garage, damaging the endplate. To make it worse, the Spaniard is running the updated package.
Raikkonen goes third (49.391), ahead of Gutierrez, Bottas, Massa and Perez.
Hamilton must really like the Halo, he's already completed 6 laps with it, more than most of the other drivers who have tried it this far.
Rosberg improves but remains 0.307s off his teammate's pace.
Vettel posts 49.182 to go fourth, 1.746s off the pace.
On the softs, Perez reports "very low grip".
Raikkonen improves with a 48.770, but remains 1.4s off Hamilton's pace. Moments later, teammate Vettel posts 47.731 to split the Mercedes duo.
Ricciardo improves to fifth with a 48.096 but is demoted when teammate Verstappen posts a 47.467 to go third.
"I brushed the wall at the exit of turn 22/23," admits Vettel, "but it's just cosmetic". The fact that the "brush" resulted in a mighty shower of sparks from the right-rear of the car suggests it was more than "cosmetic".
Cosmetic or not, he improves with a 47.375, meaning that he Hamilton and Verstappen are covered by just 0.098s.
A 47.335 sees Verstappen go quickest, putting 0.034s between himself and Hamilton.
Back on track, Button immediately improves to ninth with a 49.615.
"Issue with Romain's car based on low intake pressure," reveals Haas. "Bodywork off, investigating possible leak. Session over."
Check out our Friday gallery from Singapore, here.
At the forty minute mark, when a set of tyres must be handed back, it's: Verstappen, Hamilton, Vettel, Rosberg, Raikkonen, Ricciardo, Sainz, Gutierrez, Button and Hulkenberg. Alonso is the only driver yet to post a time.
Rosberg takes advantage of the empty track and heads out. On the soft compound he goes quickest in the first two sectors, finally crossing the line at 46.513 to go quickest by 0.822s.
Magnussen, like Rosberg taking advantage of a comparatively clear track, improves to fifteenth with a 50.398.
Alonso clouts wall at the exit of 22, but with less sparks than Vettel. Nonetheless, he goes seventh with a 48.394.
"Can you scale the brightness down on the display," asks Vettel as the sun begins to set, "especially the shift lights." Surprised he doesn't have a button for that himself.
Bright lights or not, the German, on ultras, goes quickest with a 46.287.
As Verstappen posts PBs in S1 and S2, Ricciardo goes quickest in S1. The Dutch youngster posts 46.229 having gone quickest in S3, but moments later Ricciardo bangs in a 45.872.
Both Manors are over 6.5sd off the pace at present, while the Lotus and Sauber duos are both over 4s off. Williams, as ever, is doing its own thing.
Sainz improves to sixth and Kvyat seventh, which must surely give the Toro Rosso engineers even more of a headache as the back-to-back test continues.
Verstappen raises the bar again with a 45.823 as Hamilton complains that it is "very, very hot" by his right ankle.
Told to "box", Perez asks if he can do one more lap. He is told that he can but that it eats into his soft tyre, high fuel run. Basically the F1 driver equivalent of "Mum, just five more minutes, please!"
The Mexican, still on the softs, responds by improving to twelfth with a 48.214. Teammate Hulkenberg is right behind in thirteenth.
Concerned at the tyre temperature read out on his dash, Wehrlein is told. "Don't worry, it's wrong, your temperatures and pressures are fine."
"Second to third shift very poor revs," says Button.
Out come the yellows as Rosberg goes into the wall at T18. The German is able to continue back to the pits but he has damaged - read wrecked - his front wing and also has a puncture.
Replay suggests it could have been brake failure, the Mercedes understeering and going straight into the barrier. The Mercedes was carrying a fair amount of speed and, curiously, once in the barriers, the rear wheel were still spinning.
"That wasn't in the run plan..." admits Mercedes.
Kvyat brushes the wall at T22 and asks his engineer to check the car.
A 47.220 sees Raikkonen improve to seventh, splitting the Toto Rosso duo.
Given a new 'lap mode', Raikkonen admits "I don't understand". "It's just the engine mapping settings," he is told, "same performance as push".
The session ends, Verstappen is quickest ahead of Ricciardo, Vettel, Hamilton, Rosberg, Raikkonen, Sainz, Kvyat, Massa and Gutierrez.
Alonso is eleventh, ahead of Perez, Hulkenberg, Bottas, Nasr, Button, Palmer, Magnussen, Wehrlein, Ericsson, Ocon and Grosjean.
Check out our Friday gallery from Singapore, here.