REPORT: Saturday in Singapore

Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto will line up in P11 and P12 respectively for the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix.

A strong free practice session in the late afternoon saw both cars record times good enough for the top ten, with Alex P8 and Franco P9.

As night fell and the all-important qualifying session got underway, hopes were high of a repeat of that free practice form, and a third consecutive passage into Q3.

Unfortunately, it was not meant to be, as both drivers came agonisingly close – both within three hundredths of a second – of getting into the final part of qualifying.

Franco went through the day's sessions while saving a set of medium tyres, which will give him more flexibility as we head into the race tomorrow evening.

Alex commented, "the car was definitely quicker than P11 today, so of course I’m disappointed. We’ve got a balance issue in the car this weekend and we’ve been trying to improve it, but we’ve not found anything to fix it, so when it’s not there, we’re quick but unfortunately when it is, we’re struggling and that’s what happened in Qualifying.

"We’re also dealing with rear overheating of the tyres quite early in the lap, making it difficult to predict, so it’s not ideal. Whilst it was tricky out there today, I’ll still be fighting in the battle for points tomorrow, so let’s see how we go."

Meanwhile, Franco said, "I’m a bit frustrated as I can easily look back on my lap and find time that would’ve got me into Q3, but it was still a good Qualifying session. We were hoping for a little bit more today and we were capable of doing that.

"Unfortunately, I made some little mistakes which cost me the chance to progress. There are things to review and improve on, but it was still a decent day. The car is in a good window, so we need to keep working towards the race tomorrow to try to get the best result possible."

Sporting Director Sven Smeets added, "After a good FP3 for both drivers we were confident for Qualifying tonight. In Q1 both drivers produced good laps on their last attempt and proceeded solidly into Q2.

"Looking to the performances this morning in FP3, we knew it was going to be tight to get into Q3. Unfortunately, both Alex and Franco didn’t make it into Q3 by a few milliseconds, both complaining of not having the tyres in the right window from their first attempt.

"It’s something for us to investigate in the future but for now we will concentrate on the race tomorrow as we have both cars in a good position to fight for points."