Singapore Grand Prix 2015 - Practice 2 Analysis. Kvyat shows Mercedes that Red Bull are a realistic shot for Sunday.

It was a much more interesting and action packed session at Marina Bay today, and we finally saw an answer to Mercedes dominance, provided by Red Bull's young Russian Daniil Kvyat. Red Bull finished a convincing 1st and 3rd as they showed pace which could cause an upset in qualifying and the race.

Lewis Hamilton (Left) was off the pace in 4th.

Mercedes should be concerned if they were running a normal agenda in Practice 2 because the time the session was held corresponds with Qualifying and the Race meaning track conditions will be relatively similar. The Mercs could only manage a mediocre 4th and 7th with Lewis Hamilton beating his team mate Nico Rosberg with a gap of 3 tenths separating them.
Ferrari were another strong performer in Practice 2 and they look as though they could also be in the running on Sunday as Flying Fin Kimi Raikkonen showed team mate Sebastian Vettel how its done finishing just 3 hundredths of a second behind Kvyat in P2. Vettel couldn't match and finished in 5th just a mere 8 thousandths of second behind Hamilton, For me I think Ferrari could be competing realistically against Mercedes on Sunday.

Kimi Raikkonen managed 2nd place.

After Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes the next strongest team set for strong points was without a doubt Sahara Force India. Good laps from Sergio Perez saw him take 6th ahead of team mate Nico Hulkenberg who finished 9th just behind Fernando Alonso. Force India would be happy to score a lot of points here to put a gap to Lotus for 5th in the constructors championship and begin to challenge Red Bull for 4th as we head into the power dominated tracks like Russia and USA.

As mentioned above in 8th place was Fernando Alonso in the McLaren-Honda. I'm sure the whole team would be seriously happy with the result as they set themselves the task of getting both cars in the points. Jenson Button didn't quite provide the same lap times as Alonso as he was back in 14th.

Williams are a team who are really struggling in Singapore's low traction corners and tight, twisty sections. Felipe Massa could only manage an 11th place whilst Bottas was down in 17th. From onboard laps you could really see how much the Williams was struggling in the slow tight and twisty complex of sector 3.

Felipe Massa finished 11th.

Lotus were another team off the pace with Grosjean and Maldonado finishing in 16th and 18th respectively.

Toro Rosso and Sauber both had average days in the office as Verstappen finished in 10th with Sainz in 15th place. Sauber were 12th and 13th with just 4 hundredths of a second separating Ericsson from Nasr.

Last but not least, Manor finished with Alexander Rossi beating Will Stevens down in 19th and 20th. Stevens bought out a Red Flag near the start of the session as he lightly hit a tire barrier. He only got 3 laps of Soft tire running.

Official timing as follows:

1) Daniil Kvyat - Red Bull Racing-Renault 
2) Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari +0.039s
3) Daniel Ricciardo - Red Bull Racing-Renault +0.114s
4) Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes +0.337s
5) Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari +0.345s
6) Sergio Perez - Force India-Mercedes +0.517s
7) Nico Rosberg - Mercedes +0.639s
8) Fernando Alonso - McLaren-Honda +0.817s
9) Nico Hulkenberg - Force India-Mercedes +1.152s
10) Max Verstappen - Toro Rosso-Renault +1.285s
11) Felipe Massa - Williams-Mercedes +1.542s
12) Felipe Nasr - Sauber-Ferrari +1.613s
13) Marcus Ericsson - Sauber-Ferrari +1.653s
14) Jenson Button - McLaren-Honda +1.746s
15) Carlos Sainz - Toro Rosso-Renault +1.870s
16) Romain Grosjean - Lotus-Mercedes +1.954s
17) Valtteri Bottas - Williams-Mercedes +1.976s
18) Pastor Maldonado - Lotus-Mercedes +3.952s
19) Alexander Rossi - Manor-Marussia +10.597s
20) Will Stevens - Manor-Marussia +13.790s


This sessions results pose a lot of questions for Saturday and Sunday. Personally I think Mercedes still have the advantage in the 1 lap pace because they seem to be able to turn the engine up, put in a quick lap and snatch a 1, 2. Sunday is really where its going to count and Mercedes have shown they really don't have the tire deg against the likes of Red Bull. Both Lewis Hamilton and Daniel Ricciardo did a 12 lap stint on Supersofts and Hamilton average lap times were only 1:50.8s whereas Ricciardo was averaging 1:50.3s. This 5 tenth gap could be the difference between first and second in the race and I wouldn't be surprised if we see Red Bull take a victory here at Marina Bay.

Qualifying commences in just under 12 hours.

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