SINGAPORE: Champ­ionship leader Oscar Pias­tri went fastest on Friday in a chaotic second practice session for the Singa­pore Grand Prix punctuated by two crashes, red flags and a bizarre pit lane shunt.

Piastri sped round in 1min 30.714sec, 0.132sec ahead of RB’s Isack Hadjar with Max Verstappen’s Red Bull third.

It was a welcome return to form for the Australian, who crashed last time out in Baku but avoided the chaos at the Marina Bay Circuit to top the time sheets.

Fernando Alonso had been quickest in the first practice but showed it was no fluke by coming fourth in the second session under lights.

It was first halted by George Russell crashing his Mercedes at turn 16.

When the cars got going again Liam Lawson found the barriers near the end of the lap to bring out another red flag.

As cars vied for position in the pit lane for the next restart Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari was released into Lando Norris’s McLaren, shunting it into the pit lane wall.

The McLaren was hastily pushed back into its box to fit a new front wing and Norris was eventually fifth fastest with the second Aston Martin of Lance Stroll sixth.

Esteban Ocon, Carlos Sainz, Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton rounded out the top 10.

In first practice, Alex Albon was forced to retire after less than 10 minutes when the rear brakes on his Williams overheated and caught fire.

But his engineers managed to rebuild his car in time for the second session where Albon was 13th fastest.

Published in Dawn, October 4th, 2025