Daniel Ricciardo has given one of the walls a big whack in his Red Bull.

"I clipped the barrier, I'll come back slowly," he tells his team on the radio.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer in Singaore

Talking of Renault, it was a difficult day for Jolyon Palmer. Not only was he 1.3 seconds slower than team-mate Nico Hulkenberg, but of course it was announced that he had lost his drive to Carlos Sainz for next year, putting his future in doubt. He said he found this out finally by reading it in the media last weekend.

“I knew when I read it on Autosport," he said. "And then I knew it was true as well, I spoke to some people. That was it. Of course I knew that with the job I've done this year, the team is looking for other people, because it's been a tough year. But you never know until it's over. I could have felt the same way at times last year as well.” To be frank, this shows a lack of a sense of realism, or awareness of the actual goings-on in the paddock - it has been as plain as the proverbial dog’s body parts for months that Renault were going to drop him for next season.

Image source, EPA

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer in Singaore

This looks like being a good weekend for Renault. Nico Hulkenberg was an impressive fifth fastest on Friday - but the team pointed out he obviously would not stay there because there were two Ferraris behind him. Even so, the car was showing strong long run pace - the German was actually second fastest on the race-simulations runs on ultra-softs behind Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull. Renault’s concern is that they want to qualify ahead of Fernando Alonso’s McLaren and they are not sure they will be able to.

Alonso is very quick around Marina Bay and although he was slower than team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne on Friday that was more circumstance than pace, and it was clear he had potential to be significantly faster than the times showed. The McLaren is slow in the race, because of its power-unit limitations, so as one Renault insider put it: “The last thing we want is to get trapped behind him in the race.”

Image source, Reuters

1 Vettel, 2 Verstappen, 3 Ricciardo, 4 Alonso, 5 Bottas, 6 Raikkonen, 7 Hamilton, 8 Vandoorne, 9 Hulkenberg, 10 Perez

All times have been set on the ultra-soft Pirelli.

Wow, hello.

Fernando Alonso has had some problems with the pedals on his McLaren.

He's just done his first flying lap and banged it into fourth place.

Decent engine, that Honda...

Image source, Getty Images

We also had a red flag a short time ago after Marcus Ericsson's Sauber hit the wall and damaged his rear wing.

The session has been running again for around five minutes now.

And Sebastian Vettel has gone straight out and punched in a lap that takes him to the top of the order - a 1:41.919, albeit around a second off yesterday's leading times.

Image source, Reuters

So, a quick recap.

The Red Bulls remain the class of the field so far in this session.

Max Verstappen leads the way on a 1:42.249, with yesterday's pacesetter Daniel Ricciardo two tenths back.

Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari is third, a huge nine tenths off Verstappen. Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes is down in 10th place.

We've been experiencing some problems with the live page today but I'm happy to report we are up and running now.

Apologies for this. Hopefully we'll be running green all the way to the chequered flag now.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer in Singaore

Image source, Reuters

Both title contenders had a sobering day on Friday. With Red Bull setting the pace, Lewis Hamilton was 0.7 seconds slower than Daniel Ricciardo and third fastest overall, and 0.5secs off on the long runs, and talking about “limitations” in the car that he was not sure could be resolved. Ferrari, meanwhile, looked in even worse shape, with Kimi Raikkonen ninth and Sebastian Vettel 11th.

Raikkonen was struggling with a lack front grip - always guaranteed to send him into a spiral - while Vettel had traffic on one lap and then spun on his second. In between, though, there were signs - some green and purple sectors on the timing screens, indicating his best and best of all speed - that he will be quick when he hooks it up.

Having said that, the long run averages were not looking good for Ferrari - Vettel and Raikkonen were more or less at the same pace, but 0.2-0.3secs off even Hamilton, let alone Ricciardo. “I am not yet happy. I am missing a little bit the balance and then you miss the confidence. we tried a couple of things and I am not sure they are the right things to do. Overall, I think it’s clear both of us were not that happy and we need to improve, we need to look at it and find a solution.”

As Andrew says, yesterday was a Big News Day for F1.

We, of course, covered it extensively on these pages.

All the stories are here if you want to quick catch-up:

Practice report: Ricciardo supreme as Ferrari struggle

McLaren-Honda split after three years of troubled partnership

Feature: When F1 partnerships go wrong

Carlos Sainz to join Renault in 2018

World champion Rosberg working to help Kubica return to F1

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer in Singaore

Friday in Singapore was a news-fest, with the various announcements surrounding the futures of McLaren, Honda, Renault, Toro Rosso and Carlos Sainz, but there was also some track action and it provided an intriguing headline. Red Bull were on fire - and especially Daniel Ricciardo. The Australian, half a second clear of the field, was not short of confidence afterwards. “I expected this, to be honest,” he said. “I knew we'd come here with a good car, I feel prepared, so I'm not surprised with our performance today. It's important that we obviously keep that tomorrow but I have a lot of faith we can stay there all weekend.” Can Red Bull really stay on top as Mercedes and Ferrari turn up their engines on Saturday? It’s going to be fun finding out.

Image source, EPA

Image source, getty

Hi and welcome along to live text and radio coverage of the third practice session for the Singapore Grand Prix.

Daniel Ricciardo was in a league of his own on Friday and is again expected to set the pace in a Red Bull that is ideally suited to the Marina Bay Circuit.

Title protagonists Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel will, of course, be pulling out all the stops to close the gap today.

Fifteen minutes until FP3 begins.