Friday analysis – Mercedes far from streets ahead

With the lap time difference between Pirelli’s soft and supersoft tyre compounds bigger than expected at 2.5s, practice in Singapore suggested that three pit stops will be required in Sunday’s race. Most teams got their work done, but Pastor Maldonado’s accident in FP2 hampered championship leader Nico Rosberg’s fast runs on the supersofts, and reigning champion Sebastian Vettel lost almost all of FP2 to an engine change