RUSSELL CRASH
Mercedes driver George Russell, who ended the night seventh fastest, crashed into the wall in the closing minutes at turn eight but managed to reverse out and return to the pits minus the car’s front wing.
“It was a really challenging Friday for us, we were really off the pace,” he said. “We need to understand why that is.
“We made some big changes from FP1 into FP2 but the car is not really feeling that well connected as it was this time 12 months ago and in recent races. So we need to try and get to the bottom of it.
“There’s a lot of surprises out there. You’ve got the VCARBs (RBs) really quick, the Williams really quick, the Red Bull would seem to be off the pace and there seems to be a big gap to the McLaren and the Ferraris.”
RB’s Yuki Tsunoda was a surprise fourth fastest, ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and RB’s Daniel Ricciardo, whose future at the team is uncertain with Singapore possibly his last race, in sixth place.
Seven times world champion Lewis Hamilton, a four times winner in Singapore, was 11th for Mercedes with Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso 12th.
Argentine rookie Franco Colapinto pulled up at the Alpine pits instead of Williams and was waved onwards. He was 16th fastest with team mate Alex Albon ninth.
Leclerc had set the fastest time of 1:31.763 in the incident-free first session, 0.076 quicker than Norris.
The pair are the only drivers to have started on pole position in the last five races and Saturday’s qualifying will be crucial for Singapore, the only race Red Bull lost last season with overtaking always difficult.
Once dominant Verstappen has now gone seven races without a win and looks likely to extend the run to eight on Sunday.