Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc set the fastest time in a rain-curtailed final practice session for the 2022 Singapore Grand Prix, with Max Verstappen half a second off in P2 for Red Bull.

The clock began to tick down from 60 minutes at the start of FP3 but only the Safety Car was allowed to turn laps of the soaked Singapore circuit as the pit exit remained closed. The rain did subside after around 10 minutes, but conditions were still deemed unsuitable for F1 cars to start lapping.

Trackside marshals continued to sweep the track of standing water and it was soon announced that the pit exit would open to let cars out at 1830 local time, with half of the session left to play.

The AlphaTauri drivers emerged first, several joining them on wet tyres for the next 10 minutes, after which Max Verstappen donned intermediate tyres and began to set the pace. Soon others would follow suit and times would tumble, with Charles Leclerc eventually taking top spot with a time of 1m 57.782s.

Leclerc’s lap bumped Red Bull’s Verstappen down to second by 0.526s, Carlos Sainz finishing third and another half a second back in the other Ferrari.

Fernando Alonso took fourth for Alpine, six-tenths off his compatriot Sainz, while Sergio Perez rounded out the top five for Red Bull.

Lance Stroll’s post-chequered flag flying lap put him sixth, team mate Sebastian Vettel seven-tenths off in P8, with Alpine’s Esteban Ocon splitting the Aston Martins.

George Russell finished ninth as Mercedes were somewhat anonymous in FP3, Lewis Hamilton finishing 12th. Between them were Daniel Ricciardo in 10th for McLaren and Kevin Magnussen in 11th for Haas.

Pierre Gasly eventually dropped down to P13 despite some quick wet-tyred laps, his team mate Yuki Tsunoda 15th in the other AlphaTauri.