Red Bull Racing's Russian driver Daniil Kvyat is seen in the garage after the Friday practice session of tomorrow's Singapore GP. (AFP)

Reuters/Singapore


Lewis Hamilton arrived in Singapore on a mission to match his idol Ayrton Senna’s 41 career race wins but the Briton appeared to have a fight on his hands to reach that milestone after yesterday’s practice.
The Mercedes driver has a 53-point lead with seven rounds remaining but hopes of dominating his rivals at the Marina Bay Street Circuit were dampened by the resurgent Red Bulls and competitive Ferraris.
While Hamilton’s teammate and closest rival Nico Rosberg led a Mercedes one-two in the first session, both men were outpaced in the second as Russia’s Daniil Kvyat put Red Bull on top for the first time this season.
Kvyat lapped the 23-turn floodlit circuit in one minute, 46.142 to edge out Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari by just 0.039 seconds.
Red Bull’s Australian Daniel Ricciardo was third fastest  after lapping in 1:46.256.
Hamilton was fourth, 0.337 seconds off the pace, while Rosberg languished in seventh place behind Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Sergio Perez’s Force India.
Red Bull, who with the exception of a double podium appearance in Hungary have endured a miserable season with their underperforming Renault engine, looked to have found real pace around the streets of Singapore.
Ferrari also looked up for the fight in the muggy Southeast Asian conditions with very little between the top three teams in terms of lap times over the longer, race simulation runs with heavy fuel loads.
Rosberg complained over the radio that he had problems with his drinks bottle but the German generally enjoyed a trouble-free first 90-minute session to lap more than a second faster than a year ago.
Hamilton, however, endured an erratic evening. He went off the track three times as he pushed his Mercedes to the limit at the start of his quest to emulate boyhood hero Senna’s haul of race wins in the same number of starts (161).
Fortunately for the double champion, the mistakes occurred on parts of the track with run off areas with Vettel also venturing off in the first session after running wide at the quick Turn Five but stopping short of the barriers.
American rookie Alexander Rossi crashed as he prepared for his first weekend as a race driver for tailenders Manor Marussia after flying in at short notice to replace Spaniard Roberto Merhi for five of the remaining seven grands prix.
The 23-year-old Californian, poised to become the first American to start a Formula One race since 2007, lost control of his Marussia Manor near the end of the 90-minute session and slammed into a wall. His right front wheel was knocked sideways but Rossi was uninjured by the impact. The stewards called a red flag, signalling the end of the session, which only had a few minutes to run.
Rossi had completed 18 laps during the session but had the slowest time overall, lapping the Marina Bay street circuit almost six seconds behind the early pacesetter, Germany’s Nico Rosberg.
Marussia are currently last in the standings, without a point this season, so Rossi does not have any high expectations for Singapore. Speaking to reporters shortly after his arrival in Southeast Asia, he said his main was to beat his teammate, Britain’s Will Stevens.
Rossi was a fraction faster than Stevens for most of the session but the Englishmen edged ahead after the sun went down and the lights were turned on for the twilight session.
Rossi has endured a frustrating wait for his first race. He nearly raced for Marussia in Belgium last year when the team threatened to drop Britain’s Max Chilton in a contractual dispute. He was behind the wheel for first practice but didn’t get to race after the team resolved their row with Chilton.
The last American to drive in Formula One was Scott Speed, who competed for Toro Rosso in 2006 and 2007.
Rossi has chosen number 53 for his debut, the same number carried by Disney’s ‘Herbie the Love Bug’.