Mclaren's Lando Norris Sets Singapore Pace As Struggling Max Verstappen 15th

McLaren's Lando Norris went fastest Friday to lead Ferrari pair Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz in second practice for the Singapore Grand Prix with world champion Max Verstappen struggling to 15th. The session could not have panned out much better for Englishman Norris, who trails Verstappen by 59 points at the top of the drivers' standings. The second practice in Singapore is pivotal for the teams as it is the only session which is run under the same night conditions as the race around the 4.94km Marina Bay Circuit.

"I felt like I got a lot out of Friday," said Norris. "A good start to the weekend and if we can keep it up I'll be happy."

Verstappen had 60 minutes to forget and was only 15th fastest in a skittish Red Bull that looked at times like it was on ice.

The Dutch three-time world champion was a massive 1.294 seconds adrift of Norris's fastest lap of 1min 30.727sec.

"Today was difficult. We didn't have the grip that we would have liked on the tyres, so I felt like we were sliding a lot more than usual," admitted Verstappen, who had a bad day off the track too after earlier being reprimanded by stewards for swearing in the drivers' press conference.

Leclerc, who had been fastest in first practice, clocked 1:30.785, just 0.058sec slower than Norris, but Sainz, who won in Singapore 12 months ago, was almost six tenths behind his teammate.

"There's still some work ahead of us to get it to feel exactly as I want it to," said the Monegasque Leclerc.

"We have to find the right balance and put it all together in qualifying tomorrow."

Yuki Tsunoda in a much-improved RB was fourth ahead of the second McLaren of Oscar Piastri, fresh from his victory in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku last weekend.

The second RB driven