Fernando Alonso Leads First Practice at Marina Bay
Marina Bay Street Circuit
Race weekend will see the grand prix starting at 13:00 BST on race day.
Live commentary provided on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra and BBC Sport.
Opening Round Summary
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso set the pace beating Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and Red Bull's Max Verstappen during first practice for the Singapore Grand Prix.
The British team's drivers Australian rookie and British talent wrapped up the practice in mid-table positions.
Piastri was 0.217 seconds faster than the Briton.
The experienced Spaniard was a tenth and a half ahead of Leclerc and over a quarter of a second clear than the Red Bull star.
The Italian squad's seven-time champion was P4.
Car Performance
Unlikely that the Silverstone-based team will be front-runners for pole position.
However, the outfit are hopeful of a better weekend on a tight circuit that is better matched to their chassis, which runs more competitively when high levels of aerodynamic grip are needed.
Veteran racer Alonso is also famous as a Marina Bay expert, and typically performs well on the Singapore circuit.
However he was probably operating with reduced weight or a higher engine mode than his competitors, or a combination, to achieve that pace.
Team Updates
Fellow driver Lance Stroll was 1.918secs off the pace in P18.
He had difficulties with his seat during the initial runs and was also evaluating new components.
The first session in Marina Bay is not reflective of race pace for qualifying and race as it is run in daylight in late afternoon, while grid-deciding session and the grand prix are run after dark.
Points Situation
Piastri has an advantage over his teammate by 25 points with seven races left as they approach the event in Singapore.
The Woking-based team are in position to wrap up the constructors' championship on Sunday.
The only way they can not tie it up in this race is if Mercedes surpass them by over thirty or Ferrari manage it by a similar margin.
Red Bull Update
The energy drink brand's team are optimistic of a good performance after Verstappen's victories in the previous rounds leading into this weekend.
It was a relief when light rain coming down before the session stopped by the time the machines took to the track on a circuit that had not been wet.
Senior figure Red Bull's advisor stated ahead of practice that they needed a uninterrupted running to get underway on understanding their car configuration for the weekend.
