Ricciardo dominates Singapore practice

Daniel Ricciardo dominated the opening day’s running for Sunday’s Singapore Grand Prix as he headed a Red Bull 1-2 in the second practice session.

The Australian was more than half a second faster than team-mate Max Verstappen at the end of the 90-minute session, with Lewis Hamilton third best more than seven tenths back in the leading Mercedes.

Ricciardo’s 1m40.852s lowered his own benchmark from the opening session by more than 1.5-seconds, a time set over Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, who plummeted down the order in the second session.

Vettel ended the day’s running in 11th while Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen was only just inside the top ten.

Traffic on Vettel’s low-fuel run part way through Practice 2 hampered the German’s ultimate lap time, the four-time world champion encountering Marcus Ericsson’s Sauber on his fastest lap of the session.

Meanwhile, following news of their split with Honda, both McLaren drivers were comfortably in the ten, with Stoffel Vandoorne sixth ahead of Fernando Alonso in seventh.

They trailed Nico Hulkenberg’s Renault, which saw him improve from ninth to fifth across the two sessions, while Jolyon Palmer in the sister car could do no better than 14th.

A late mistake from Sainz saw the Toro Rosso driver in the escape road at the harbour front grandstand complex, the Spaniard reversing back onto the track and forcing a number of cars to take evasive action.

There was a spin from Romain Grosjean and championship leader Hamilton during the session, while a number of drivers brushed the wall in various parts of the circuit.

Final practice gets underway tomorrow at 2000(AEST) for a last 60-minute session prior to qualifying.

Result: Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix Practice 2

Position	Driver	Car	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull/Renault	1m40.852s		33
2	Max Verstappen	Red Bull/Renault	1m41.408s	0.556s	28
3	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1m41.555s	0.703s	36
4	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1m42.104s	1.252s	35
5	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	1m42.448s	1.596s	33
6	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren/Honda	1m42.501s	1.649s	34
7	Fernando Alonso	McLaren/Honda	1m42.788s	1.936s	32
8	Sergio Perez	Force India/Mercedes	1m42.826s	1.974s	35
9	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1m42.835s	1.983s	30
10	Esteban Ocon	Force India/Mercedes	1m43.054s	2.202s	34
11	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1m43.104s	2.252s	33
12	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Toro Rosso/Renault	1m43.236s	2.384s	38
13	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso/Renault	1m43.608s	2.756s	32
14	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	1m43.795s	2.943s	32
15	Felipe Massa	Williams/Mercedes	1m43.836s	2.984s	32
16	Lance Stroll	Williams/Mercedes	1m44.301s	3.449s	32
17	Kevin Magnussen	Haas/Ferrari	1m44.417s	3.565s	32
18	Romain Grosjean	Haas/Ferrari	1m44.928s	4.076s	29
19	Pascal Wehrlein	Sauber/Ferrari	1m45.673s	4.821s	34
20	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber/Ferrari	1m45.721s	4.869s	35

Result: Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix Practice 1

Position	Driver	Car	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:42.489s	–	21
2	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:42.598s	0.109s	21
3	Max Verstappen	Red Bull/Renault	1:42.610s	0.121s	23
4	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:42.904s	0.415s	27
5	Sergio Perez	Force India/Mercedes	1:43.423s	0.934s	25
6	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1:43.434s	0.945s	27
7	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:43.734s	1.245s	25
8	Fernando Alonso	McLaren/Honda	1:43.759s	1.270s	19
9	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	1:44.101s	1.612s	24
10	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso/Renault	1:44.220s	1.731s	25
11	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren	1:44.340s	1.851s	25
12	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	1:44.961s	2.472s	25
13	Esteban Ocon	Force India/Mercedes	1:45.053s	2.564s	25
14	Felipe Massa	Williams/Mercedes	1:45.084s	2.595s	27
15	Romain Grosjean	Haas/Ferrari	1:46.456s	3.967s	20
16	Antonio Giovinazzi	Haas/Ferrari	1:46.782s	4.293s	27
17	Lance Stroll	Williams/Mercedes	1:47.190s	4.701s	11
18	Sean Gelael	Toro Rosso/Renault	1:47.570s	5.081s	26
19	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber/Ferrari	1:47.699s	5.210s	23
20	Pascal Wehrlein	Sauber/Ferrari	1:47.886s	5.397s	24