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Marina Bay Street Circuit

This weekend includes the main event beginning at British Summer Time on race day.

Live commentary available on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra and mobile app.

Opening Round Summary

The team's Spanish veteran set the pace in front of Monegasque driver and Dutch ace during FP1 at the Marina Bay race.

McLaren's title rivals Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris finished the session in fifth and sixth.

The young Australian was 0.217 seconds quicker than the Briton.

The experienced Spaniard was a slim margin in front of the Ferrari driver and over a quarter of a second quicker than the Red Bull star.

Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton was P4.

Weekend Outlook

Few anticipate that Aston Martin will be front-runners for the top spot.

Nonetheless, the squad are optimistic of a better weekend on a tight circuit that is better matched to their vehicle, which performs better when plenty of aerodynamic grip are needed.

Veteran racer Alonso is also renowned as a Singapore specialist, and often shines on the Singapore circuit.

Yet he was probably operating with a lighter load or a more aggressive setting than his opponents, or both, to set such a quick time.

Session Details

Partner Canadian racer was 1.918secs behind in P18.

Stroll had issues with his seat during the initial runs and was also running test items.

The first session in Marina Bay is not reflective of later performance under lights as it is run in bright conditions in the daytime, while grid-deciding session and the grand prix are run at night.

Points Situation

The McLaren driver has an advantage over Norris by a solid margin with seven races left heading into the weekend in the Lion City.

The Woking-based team are set to wrap up the team title on Sunday.

Single possibility they can not tie it up in this race is if the Silver Arrows beat them by over thirty or Ferrari achieve that by thirty-five.

Competitor Outlook

The energy drink brand's team are hopeful of a strong result after recent successes in Italy and Azerbaijan leading into this event.

They were relieved when light rain occurring before the session abated by the point the vehicles emerged on a surface that had stayed clear.

Team consultant Red Bull's advisor stated before the session that they required a uninterrupted running to make a comprehensive start on fine-tuning their set-up for the weekend.