Verstappen Takes Sprint Pole In Singapore, Russell Second And Leclerc Third
Max Verstappen claimed pole position for the Singapore Grand Prix sprint with a 1:31.156 in sprint qualifying. The Red Bull driver will start Saturday’s sprint from the front. Mercedes’ George Russell was second with a 1:31.276 and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc third with a 1:31.399. Verstappen won last weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix, his first victory of the season.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri (1:31.454) and Lando Norris (1:31.587) were fourth and fifth. Lewis Hamilton was sixth and Kimi Antonelli seventh, with Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson eighth. Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly were ninth and tenth, with no time recorded in the final segment.
The session was dominated by Cadillac’s Sergio Perez. He hit the wall at Turn 4 early in SQ1, and his front wing disintegrated, leaving carbon fibre debris on the track. Yellow flags turned into a red flag. When the session resumed, drivers had only one attempt to set a time. Verstappen topped the segment with a 1:33.477 on mediums, 0.018 seconds ahead of Leclerc. A timing system fault then caused confusion about which drivers had been eliminated, and race control delayed the start of SQ2. Alonso made it through to SQ2 by a couple of tenths, while Lindblad was the first driver on the wrong side of the cut-off. Perez was reported to face no investigation for driving his car in an unsafe condition.
In the same segment, Verstappen was placed under investigation for allegedly passing Hamilton under yellow flags. Hamilton reported over the radio that Verstappen had overtaken him under yellow flags. Verstappen said he gave the position back as a precaution. At the time of writing, the stewards’ decision had not been announced. If found guilty, Verstappen could face a grid penalty for the sprint.
At Mercedes, Russell has been forced to take an engine penalty this weekend after the power unit failure that ended his Bahrain Grand Prix in the closing laps. He had planned to take the penalty in Austin, but with no spare engine available, it was brought forward to Singapore. Knowing he would be starting near the back, the British driver agreed with Mercedes to run the pre-upgrade car specification. His aim is to find out whether the drop in form in Malaysia was a one-off or caused by the upgrade.
The sprint starts at 12:00 Turkish time on Saturday, with qualifying at 16:00 and the Grand Prix at 15:00 on Sunday. Track temperature was measured at 41.7 degrees, with air temperature at around 30.6 degrees and humidity at 76 per cent.