Huge Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri contrast in interviews at Singapore GP speaks volumes

You did not need to know the result of second practice at the Singapore Grand Prix to figure out which of the McLaren drivers had enjoyed the better preparation. All you needed to do was watch Oscar Piastri speak in the TV pen moments after team-mate Lando Norris had given his verdict.

Because the body language displayed by the both of them could hardly have been more different. Just by watching Norris mumble his way through a painful exchange with Ted Kravitz, you knew that he had been some way off the level of performance displayed by his Formula 1 title rival.

And indeed he was. Piastri finished the day at the top of the timesheets as he bids to stop the trend of Norris taking a small bite out of his championship lead every weekend, while the Brit posted the fifth fastest time which was almost half-a-second off the pace of his team-mate.

His efforts were not helped by the whack he took in the pit lane when Charles Leclerc was released into the side of him by an unvigilant Ferrari mechanic, but Norris made it clear he felt that did not affect him any more and that he was simply not at his best.

Largely avoiding eye contact with Kravitz, Norris said: "It was a difficult day for me. I'm not feeling too great with the car – I'm missing all the feelings I had here last year. There are plenty of things to work on. Just a bad day. Oscar is quick, so I don't have anything to complain about other than doing a bad job."

Piastri was stood behind Norris as he gave that rather bleak verdict of his day's work. And when he then stepped up to the microphone, the Aussie wore a smile and gave the air of a man who has found his feet much more quickly on the Marina Bay Circuit.

READ MORE: One thing is more certain than ever about Christian Horner and his planned F1 comeback

READ MORE: Alex Dunne close to Red Bull deal as Helmut Marko gives verdict on Irish F1 hopeful

He said: "I found my feet on the medium at the end there. Obviously, not much representative race running, but the car has been in a good place and I feel like I've learned a lot through today. That's the aim of practice, so it's been a good day.

"Here, qualifying is a massive part of the weekend – it's a massive part everywhere, but I think here it's one of the most important. So you'd rather qualify further up and deal with the unknown for the race, than qualify further back and know exactly what's going to happen in the race, because that's not going to help you."

It was a tough session for the Brits overall as Lewis Hamilton and Oliver Bearman narrowly avoided crashes, and George Russell was not so lucky. The 27-year-old buried the front of his Mercedes in the barrier and said once he had reached the media pen that he was puzzled by what had happened.

Russell said: "It was a bit of a weird one, to be honest. I'm not sure what happened. I braked a little bit earlier and went in a bit slower but then just lost the rear. Thankfully, I went in front end on and didn't do too much damage. But, obviously, game over. A bit annoying and sorry to the team for that, but better today than tomorrow."