In the Singapore Grand Prix practice on Friday, the Ferrari team emerged as the fastest, which could potentially end Red Bull’s 15-race unbeaten run.
The first session saw Charles Leclerc on top of the timesheets with his team-mate Carlos Sainz in second place.
Later in the day, the positions were reversed and the Italian team again led one-two.
Red Bull’s championship leader Max Verstappen, who is chasing an unprecedented 11th win in a row, was placed third and eighth in the hot and humid sessions.
Verstappen expressed his concern over Ferrari’s impressive performance, stating that Red Bull was much worse than they had expected.
Sergio Perez, last year’s winner on the Marina Bay layout, was struggling with the rear end of the car, finishing seventh in both sessions.
The Mexican driver relayed over the team radio that he felt like he was going to crash in every braking zone.
Red Bull had already identified Ferrari as their major rival coming into the weekend, and they are expected to fight for pole position again on Saturday.
However, five teams were in the top seven in practice two, with four of them ahead of Red Bull. George Russell finished third for Mercedes in session two, with Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin in fourth place.
Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton finished fifth for Mercedes, and Lando Norris of McLaren was sixth.
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said that he expected this to be one of the toughest races of the season for them.
Ferrari’s Leclerc started in pole position in last year’s night race on the Marina Bay street circuit and lapped in one minute 33.350 seconds in the first session.
Sainz was 0.078 seconds slower than Leclerc.
Verstappen was 0.732 seconds slower than Sainz on a shortened track with two fewer corners than before due to ongoing construction works. McLaren brought a big upgrade to the race, and Norris said that it was working well.
Alex Albon was last in the second session for Williams after being sidelined early on by a power unit problem.
