Ferrari were the surprise pace-setters in Friday practice in Singapore, with championship leaders Red Bull uncharacteristically off the pace, as track running got going under the lights.

Red Bull laid the groundwork for a potentially challenging weekend in Singapore with their pre-weekend comments, but no one – not even the drivers themselves – anticipated their pace would be as slow as it proved on Friday evening.

“Our performance today was unexpected,” said driver Max Verstappen. “We tried quite a few different things in FP2 and some worked, and some didn’t. We never really got the car together today, I struggled with the balance especially, so there are quite a few things to work on with the Team tonight. I will of course try to improve tomorrow but there’s quite a gap, the Ferrari’s are looking fast. Let’s see what improvements we can make overnight.”

It was Ferrari who secured a pair of one-two finishes across Free Practice 1 and 2 in Singapore and, while Verstappen managed to take third in FP1, come the cooler temperatures of FP2 the Dutchman had dropped to P8, 0.732s off Carlos Sainz’s fastest time – with Perez only one position and 0.040s quicker than his championship-leading team mate.

Verstappen’s mood was echoed by Perez, with the 2022 Singapore Grand Prix winner reporting over team radio in FP2 that he felt he was on the verge of crashing.

“I think there are some interesting bits going on that we need to figure out overnight,” said Perez. “We seem to be struggling quite a bit with the rear end of the car, especially in FP2, so plenty of things to look at, and hopefully we can come up with the best possible set-up, because we know qualifying is very, very important.”

Red Bull can theoretically claim the constructors’ title in Singapore this weekend – although on the evidence at the Marina Bay Street Circuit on Friday evening, the team may have to keep the celebrations on ice…