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Lando Norris is determined to achieve great things as the season progresses, especially with the fierce competition against Red Bull for the top spot. The young Brit isn’t keen on seeing Verstappen on the throne and appears ready to do whatever it takes to disrupt his plans. Judging by his recent qualifying performances, he seems to be on the right track.
This great driver continued his strong performance from the second practice session by topping the timesheets again in the third session in Singapore. George Russell took the second spot, but he was nearly half a second slower than Norris. Oscar Piastri rounded out the top three, lagging about eight-tenths behind Norris.
The third practice session in Singapore usually carries less weight than the second in terms of weekend preparation, as it takes place in daytime conditions, unlike qualifying and the race itself. However, teams like Mercedes and Red Bull, which struggled in the previous session, found this practice valuable for tuning their cars ahead of qualifying. A heavy downpour after the second practice also impacted the track, washing away some of the rubber.
The session started with a brief interruption due to a monitor lizard on the track, leading to the declaration of slippery conditions and a red flag while track staff ensured the creature was safely removed. Once cleared, drivers returned to the track on medium tires, except for Colapinto and Sauber, who opted for softs. Max Verstappen received positive feedback about his car’s performance, which seemed to return to its usual competitive form.
After around 40 minutes of race simulations, teams switched to soft tires for one last push before qualifying. Lando Norris emerged as the clear winner of the quick laps, greatly outperforming his rivals. The session was mostly incident-free, aside from a few excursions into the run-off areas by George Russell and Albon, who punctured his front left tire after hitting the wall, but without sustaining further damage to his car.
Toto Wolff reacts
Toto Wolff reflected on the qualifying session, expressing disappointment with Lewis Hamilton’s performance, who finished in seventh place. In contrast, George Russell had a much stronger performance, ending up in second. The Mercedes boss stressed in a media interview that it’s difficult to gauge expectations, as Mercedes continues to face a lot of challenges this year, much like in previous seasons. He described the qualifying session as strange and unique in many ways. Toto was also impressed by McLaren and Lando Norris’s performance, as he once again led the charge.
“I think with these cars you never quite understand,” Wolff said, as quoted by Crash.
“We turned the car upside down, literally. It seems to be in a much better balance window. The whole [FP3] classification was a bit odd.
Lando so far ahead, then big spreads between teammates.”
After FP2, Hamilton described the car as feeling quite difficult, stating that it had been a difficult day overall. He mentioned that they had tried various setups, but nothing seemed to improve performance. Despite their best efforts, he expressed frustration at being over a second off the pace, feeling somewhat lost in terms of how to optimize the car’s performance.
Hamilton knew this season might be tough for him, which is why it wasn’t surprising that he thought about Ferrari’s offer, hoping to break records and win the championship. The experienced driver didn’t want to stick with a team that clearly didn’t seem to have much chance of getting better in the years ahead. This season has shown that while Mercedes can perform really well at times, there are also moments when they struggle quite a bit.
Toto Wolff on Lewis Hamilton
When asked about Hamilton’s struggles in FP3, Wolff stressed that the team was using a different setup than usual, and they experimented with a few adjustments during the session. He stated that this difference in setup is likely why there was a bigger gap than typically seen with the same car. Wolff also mentioned that they only had a partial understanding of the difference between Hamilton's performance and Russell's.
It will be interesting to see which direction things take for Mercedes and whether they might make a breakthrough. It’s hard to believe that such a scenario could play out, and it doesn’t seem realistic that things will improve significantly. However, it’s certain that the team’s leaders will put in every effort. Mercedes last won the F1 championship in 2020.
Actually, Mercedes has won the F1 championship multiple times: from 2014 to 2020, they claimed the title every year except for 2019, when Lewis Hamilton secured his sixth championship in 2018.
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