Ferrari had expected their SF90 to struggle in Singapore, yet their qualifying laps were quicker than last year while both Mercedes and Red Bull lost time compared with 12 months earlier.
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Three weeks earlier in Hungary, another high-downforce circuit, Ferrari were almost half a second off the pace in qualifying and significantly slower over a race distance. In Singapore, however, they came close to taking a clean sweep of the front row.
For the weekend the team introduced an upgrade package that included a revised nose with a cape design, a concept similar to features already used by several rival cars.
Mercedes and Red Bull had been widely expected to contend for pole position in Singapore, but both manufacturers were around four-tenths of a second slower than they were at the same venue last year.
Most teams recorded faster laps than in the previous season. Overall the grid tightened, with the spread from front to back narrowing by roughly six-tenths of a second compared with 12 months earlier.
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Despite the general improvement across the field, the fastest lap ever set in Singapore the previous year remained unbeaten by the 2019 cars.
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