Valtteri Bottas crashes out of first practice at the Singapore Grand Prix after slamming into the barriers on the Marina Bay street circuit
- Valtteri Bottas has crashed out of the first practice at the Singapore Grand Prix
- The Finn slammed into the barriers at turn 19 of the Marina Bay street circuit
- He is the closest challenger to Brit Lewis Hamilton in the driver’s standings
Valtteri Bottas crashed out of first practice for the Singapore Grand Prix.
Bottas, Lewis Hamilton’s closest challenger for this season’s championship, lost control of his Mercedes at Turn 19, slamming into the barriers.
Bottas was unscathed in the low-speed accident, but the Finn sustained serious damage to the front of his car.
Valtteri Bottas was given a lift back to the pits after crashing out on first practice in Singapore
The opening running at the Marina Bay circuit was suspended to retrieve Bottas’ machine.
Hamilton is 63 points clear of team-mate Bottas in the standings with seven rounds remaining.
Following Bottas’ crash, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen set the pace in the opening running.
Verstappen finished 0.167 seconds clear of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel with Hamilton third, six tenths off the pace.
Charles Leclerc arrived in Singapore as the sport’s in-form driver following successive victories in Belgium and Italy.
But the Monegasque’s weekend got off to an underwhelming start as a gearbox issue restricted him to just a dozen laps.
The Finn’s Mercedes was lifted with a crane off the Marina Bay street circuit on Friday