Hamilton fires Singapore warning to Vettel and Ferrari

Lewis Hamilton fired a warning to Ferrari and error-prone Sebastian Vettel, claiming that Mercedes expect to be stronger at their bogey track Marina Bay after practice for the Singapore Grand Prix. The Silver Arrows have typically struggled for pace in Singapore, but Hamilton won last year after Vettel's first-lap wipeout with Kimi Raikkonen and Max Verstappen.

Hamilton was just 0.011 seconds off Raikkonen's FP2-leading time, while Vettel was left to count the cost of hitting the wall on his qualifying simulation, which ended his session early and prevented him from testing out his car's long-run performance.

Although Vettel is confident that the missed time will not have an impact on the race, Hamilton believes Mercedes will be able to take the fight to both Ferrari and the high-downforce Red Bulls on race day.

"The first session of the day was good, even though it might not show on the timesheets as we didn't use the hypersoft tyres," Hamilton said. "We got through our programme, tried some different options and got some good results from it.

"We were close to the Ferraris, but we will only find out tomorrow how quick they really are.

"The guys have been working so hard both here at the track and back at the factory to improve the car and it is definitely feeling better than it did in the past.

"The track is incredible; we're a lot quicker than we were last year, but that also makes the lap so much harder than it was even last year because the G forces have gone up, we need to react quicker and it is crazy hot in the cockpit.

"You're sweating even before you get into the car; in the second session, I think I lost almost two kilos, so I will lose even more on Sunday.

"We will see how it goes tomorrow, but it's looking like it might be a three-way fight between Ferrari, Red Bull and us."