Leclerc fastest in Singapore as lizards interrupt track action in FP1

Leclerc’s 1m33.350s put him less than a tenth clear of Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz in FP1.

• F1 Singapore Grand Prix 2023 - Friday Practice Results

His margin over the rest of the field would have been significantly greater had it not been for a lizard on track causing a brief yellow flag period.

On three different occasions, a lizard was on the track, forcing drivers to slow down due to the yellow flags.

Max Verstappen, who memorably pointed out a “giant lizard” in 2016, was the first driver to come across one in an amusing exchange with his race engineer.

Verstappen reported over team radio: "Ah! There's a lizard again on the track! A smaller one this time".

While Ferrari did lead a 1-2 in first practice, less than two-tenths covered the top five.

Verstappen ended the session in third-place, ahead of Lando Norris in the upgraded McLaren.

Lewis Hamilton completed the top five in the lead Mercedes, within two-tenths of Leclerc’s top time.

George Russell was 0.3s down in sixth, while Sergio Perez could only manage seventh overall.

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Fernando Alonso, Yuki Tsunoda and Esteban Ocon completed the top 10 - all of the aforementioned drivers set their best time on the softs.

Only 0.7s separated the top 10 in first practice, with the session fairly unrepresentative given the track conditions being completely different to what will be the case in FP2, qualifying and the race.