F1 LIVE: Carlos Sainz fastest in FP2 but Lewis Hamilton impresses at Singapore Grand Prix

5-10: Alonso, Magnussen, Verstappen, Ocon, Stroll, Albon

Verstappen to win 14 races in 2022 season 2/5

Verstappen to win 8 world titles 10/1

Verstappen to retire with a record of most career wins 20/1

Lewis Hamilton to win a race in 2022 season 6/4

George Russell to win a race in 2022 season 3/1

Lewis Hamilton to retire at end of 2022 season 5/1

Ross Brawn has backed Mercedes to adapt to Formula 1’s new regulations, declaring: “They are not idiots.” Rule-changes introduced for the 2022 F1 season have seen alterations made to the front and rear wings of cars, as well as to the vehicles’ floors.

Mercedes won the constructors’ championship in 2021 and only missed out on the drivers’ title after a controversial final lap in the last race of the season, as Red Bull’s Max Verstappen claimed his first championship. Mercedes have been well off the pace this year, however, but Brawn believes that they will improve.

The F1 managing director, who previously worked as Mercedes’ team prinicipal, discussed the new regulations with F1 Insider and said: “Basically, I am very satisfied. The cars can follow each other more closely and overtake better as a result. Side-by-side driving has also become easier.

“Before, not many people knew that a car also lost performance there. [Tyre manufacturer] Pirelli has also contributed to the improvement. So, everything has worked well up to this point.

The team are without a win so far in the 2022 Formula 1 season

For a man whose irrepressible ambition and unique talent has taken him to the cusp of Formula 1’s summit, George Russell could be forgiven for thinking 2022 hasn’t quite matched his lofty expectations. Waiting in the wings – aching for three years at the back of the pack with Williams – the 24-year-old’s long-heralded spot in the Mercedes garage was, most assumed, the final step on the road to fulfilment. Grand Prix victories, and subsequent title pursuits, were surely a slam-dunk inevitability.

Yet the scale of the struggle at Mercedes this season, toiling with their car’s violent oscillations and unpredictability, sees the Brit widely praised for his steadiness behind the wheel. With six races to go Russell is postioned in fourth, 35 points ahead of his teammate Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc in second is just 16 points clear, as F1 heads to the humidity of Singapore for the first time in three years this weekend.

But despite the commendation, with seven podiums to his name and a top-five finish in every race bar one, race-by-race consistency is not the ultimate aim of the game.

“I don’t care about finishing second in the Championship, it’s not my goal,” Russell sternly tells The Independent, in his team’s Monza motorhome. We’re all here to win. You give me a choice between finishing fourth in the Championship and having a race win or two under my belt or finishing second with no wins, I’ll take fourth. That is now the position we’re in, we want to win a race.”

Exclusive interview: The Mercedes star speaks about the ‘thrill’ of his pole position in Budapest and finding the right balance away from racing

Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate, Sergio Perez, took fourth, one spot ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell. Verstappen holds a 116-point championship lead heading into the concluding six rounds of the campaign.

He will win the title here on Sunday night if he takes the chequered flag, and sets the fastest lap, and Perez and Leclerc finish lower than fourth and eighth respectively. The Dutch driver, celebrating his 25th birthday on Friday, led they way for the majority of the one-hour session at the Marina Bay Circuit.

But as darkness descended, Hamilton moved to the top of the timesheets to provide the British driver with early hope that he could force his way into contention. Hamilton has won in Singapore on four occasions and set one of the laps of his life in qualifying for this race in 2018.

The Mercedes driver has yet to win a race in 2022 but finished ahead of Max Verstappen.

Lewis Hamilton remains hopeful that Mercedes are “not too far away” from a first win of the season as F1 returns to Singapore this weekend. The eight-time constructors’ champions are yet to taste victory in 2022 and with just six races to go, the Silver Arrows are looking to avoid their first winless season since 2011.

Hamilton himself has a record to maintain too, having won a race in each of his previous 15 seasons in F1, yet has not been top of the podium in the previous 16 Grands Prix this year. But Hamilton, a four-time winner in Singapore, believes Mercedes are in a “much better place than they’ve ever been” this year as the team look to overhaul Ferrari, 35 points ahead in the standings.

“Good to be back [in Singapore], 2019 feels like a lifetime ago,” Hamilton said, in the FIA press conference ahead of this weekend’s race. The track is epic to drive. It’s a very bumpy ride, that lap in 2018 [qualifying] was definitely one of the best laps of my career. The hope is always that you can feel something similar, the feeling that day was something very unique.

The Silver Arrows are looking to avoid their first winless season since 2011

Formula 1 has announced that six sprint races will be on the calendar from 2023 - doubling the amount from 2022 and 2021.

The 100km Saturday dash, first introduced at the British Grand Prix last year, has proven popular with teams and fans alike and will be present at 25% of Grand Prix weekends during 2023’s record 24-race calendar.

There was an unanimous agreement to increase the number of sprint events amongst F1 teams at the commission meeting earlier this year, following discussions with the FIA, and a vote amongst the World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) today confirmed the plans for next year.

Currently, there are points on offer for the top-eight in the 25-30 minute race - from eight points down to one - with the result determining the starting grid for Sunday’s Grand Prix.

Venues for the 2023 sprints will be confirmed at a later date. This year two sprint races have taken place so far at Imola and Spielberg, both won by Max Verstappen, with one more to come in the penultimate weekend of the season in Brazil.

There are currently three sprint races in the calendar but that number will double for next year