Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz achieved his second consecutive Formula 1 pole position in a dramatic and thrilling Singapore Grand Prix qualifying as championship leader Max Verstappen and the Red Bull getting eliminated in Q2.
Sainz and teammate Charles Leclerc had locked out the front row following the opening series of laps, with the two having saved a set of soft tyres each from Q2 to use at the start of the final shootout.
The Ferrari driver set an earlier benchmark with a time of one minute, 31.170 seconds to sit a quarter of a second clear of Leclerc, managed to better his lap time with one minute, 30.984 seconds to take his claim for a second P1 on the bounce after securing Saturday’s spoils at Monza.
Lando Norris split the Ferraris to claim second in a quickfire final round of laps, but Leclerc put the McLaren driver back in his place to reclaim a provisional front-row lockout – just 0.079 seconds off Sainz’s lap.
But George Russell, who had been a step ahead of Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton throughout the weekend, set the best middle sector to threaten Sainz’s advantage, but lost some time in the final sector to claim second on Sunday’s grid.
Leclerc had to be content with third, and will start on the second row alongside Norris, who was the remaining McLaren to make Q3 as teammate Oscar Piastri dropped out in Q1.
Hamilton was fifth fastest alongside an impressive Kevin Magnussen, who carried his Haas to sixth on the Singapore Grand Prix grid. Fernando Alonso improved on his final lap to collect seventh, beating Esteban Ocon, Nico Hulkenberg, and AlphaTauri’s Liam Lawson.
Verstappen had a nightmare in Q2 and was knocked out from the top ten shootout by Lawson, as Sergio Perez’s spin ensured neither Red Bull made it through to the final part of qualifying.
The defending champion was first to set a lap in the intermediate phase of qualifying, but his time was quickly rendered uncompetitive as he was quickly outpaced by the Haas of Kevin Magnussen and the other traditional front-runners.
Perez was shuffled into the bottom five as Verstappen treaded water just inside the top ten, but the final series of laps cost Red Bull greatly. Verstappen made a mistake in Turn 3 and could never recover – although he improved his time – he was vulnerable.
His teammate did not factor as a Turn 2 spin ended his chances of progression immediately, and Verstappen’s time did not stand up as Lawson pipped him by 0.007 seconds to break into Q3 for the first time.
Verstappen will be subject to two investigations after the session for apparently impeding in the pitlane during Q1, and then potentially holding up Yuki Tsunoda during the second part of qualifying to ensure the AlphaTarui driver could not set a competitive time.
Pierre Gasly split the Red Bulls having eclipsed Perez with his lap, while Alex Albon topped out in P14 while Tsunoda was at the bottom of the Q2 timing board.
Lance Stroll produced the Q1-ending red flag with a heavy crash at the final corner while attempting to prise himself out of the drop zone amid significant track improvement in the dying stages of the session.
A series of final efforts began with Tsunoda vaulting to the top of the timesheets with one minute, 31.991 seconds, underlining the potential time gain for the rest of the field as the Haas duo also found their way clear of trouble.
Albon was able to pull himself out of the drop zone in those final runs but sat precariously on the brink of falling back into the drop zone as Piastri was improving.
But Stroll’s massive shunt, produced after dipping a wheel off the circuit ahead of the final corner, ended with the stricken Aston Martin sitting in the middle of the track – in front of Piastri, who had to back out of his lap to avoid the wreck which saved Albon’s bacon.
Piastri was knocked out in P17, behind Valtteri Bottas in the bottom five, as Logan Sargeant and Zhou Guanyu’s earlier efforts had not been enough improvement to climb out of the drop zone. Stroll ended up at the bottom of the timesheets.
So a dramatic and exciting qualifying with the non Red Bulls unable to take part in the top ten shootout following a shocking Q2 exit. This gave the opportunity for the other teams to challenge for pole and in the end, it was Carlos Sainz who takes P1.
As overtaking is tricky around the Marina Bay street circuit, it will be fascinating to see if Red Bull can fight back but the winning run for the team this season looks over as Ferrari is looking good for another win.
Singapore Grand Prix, qualifiying results:
1 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:30.984
2 George Russell Mercedes 1:31.056
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:31.063
4 Lando Norris McLaren 1:31.270
5 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:31.485
6 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:31.575
7 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:31.615
8 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:31.673
9 Nico Hulkenberg Haas 1:31.808
10 Liam Lawson AlphaTauri 1:32.268
11 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:32.173
12 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:32.274
13 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:32.310
14 Alex Albon Williams 1:33.719
15 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 1:31.991
16 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 1:32.809
17 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:32.902
18 Logan Sargeant Williams 1:33.252
19 Guanyu Zhou Alfa Romeo 1:33.258
20 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:33.397
Singapore Grand Prix qualifying review as reported by Formula1.com.
Carlos Sainz made good on the promise shown by Ferrari all weekend to take a dramatic pole position in Singapore. Already on provisional pole, the Spaniard improved on his final run to narrowly beat rival George Russell and team mate Charles Leclerc to seal a P1 start.
It was a frantic session, one that will see several drivers investigated for impeding after qualifying and one that was red flagged after Lance Stroll’s hefty crash in the final stages of Q1.
But Sainz stayed out of trouble and continued to set the pace, with a rapid final sector seeing him improve on his provional pole lap by over four-tenths, with a time of 1m 30.984s good enough to take his second consecutive P1 start. In second was Russell, as he narrowly missed out on pole by just 0.072s
A frustrated Leclerc qualified third fastest for Ferrari ahead of the McLaren of Lando Norris in fourth, the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton in fifth, and the Haas of Kevin Magnussen in sixth.
Fernando Alonso was seventh fastest for Aston Martin, while Esteban Ocon impressed for Alpine to take eighth, ahead of the other Haas of Nico Hulkenberg, with the AlphaTauri of Liam Lawson – who made it into Q3 for the first time in his short F1 career – rounding out the top-10.
Lawson’s place in Q3 came at the expense of a Red Bull, with Max Verstappen a surprise victim at the Q2 hurdle. The Dutch driver qualified 11th, and was less than pleased with his car’s performance, while his team mate Sergio Perez also found himself knocked out in 13th.
Sandwiched between the Red Bull pair is Alpine’s Pierre Gasly in 12th, while Alex Albon was down in 14th for Williams, with Yuki Tsunoda in 15th after failing to set a time for AlphaTauri in Q2.
Due to Stroll’s crash at the end of Q1, several drivers were unable to complete their final laps. But the unlucky few to be knocked out early included the Alfa Romeo of Valtteri Bottas in 16th, as well as the McLaren of Oscar Piastri, who was right behind Stroll when he crashed, down in 17th.
Logan Sargeant went another race unable to out-qualify his Williams team mate Albon, as the rookie ended up 18th, ahead of the second Alfa Romeo of Zhou Guanyu, as Stroll brought up the rear of the field.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.sainz-pips-russell-and-leclerc-in-ultra-tight-qualifying-battle-in-singapore.1OkUf77rpYue1xTv4iBPg1.html
George Russell believes Mercedes is in an “exciting place” for Sunday’s Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix with the “strategic advantage” of an extra set of medium tyres relative to Ferrari.
The Briton produced a superb late effort in Q3 to split the Ferraris at the Marina Bay circuit, beating Charles Leclerc by 0.007s to line up second behind polesitter Carlos Sainz.
Ferrari has headed all three practice sessions and qualifying on a weekend that Red Bull has struggled for balance with its RB19, putting its 100% win record in 2023 in jeopardy by missing out on Q3 with both cars.
However, Russell believes Mercedes is in a good position to challenge for a first win of the season due to the team’s tyre strategy.
Speaking after qualifying, Russell remarked that he is “really happy with this weekend as a whole” and feels “really confident in the car”.
“The team did a great job with the strategy,” he said.
“We’re on an offset strategy compared to everybody else. We’ve got an extra set of medium tyres tomorrow, which nobody around us has.
“So to get to Q3 and be on the front row with a strategic advantage tomorrow is exciting place to be.”
Russell explained that because tyre degradation during Friday’s practice sessions looked “pretty bad”, there would be a high chance that its extra tyres could play to the team’s advantage.
“I think it’s gonna be very close between a one and a two stop,” he said.
“With our mediums, we can put Ferrari in a difficult position and try and force them into an error and get the upper hand, so that’s what we’re looking for.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/russell-mercedes-in-exciting-place-with-singapore-f1-tyre-advantage/10521146/
Formula 1 championship leader Max Verstappen says changes Red Bull made to his car made it “undriveable” in his “shocking” Singapore Grand Prix qualifying Q2 exit.
Red Bull has been on the back foot all weekend at the Marina Bay circuit, with both Verstappen and team-mate Sergio Perez failing to progress to Q3 in qualifying on Saturday.
Verstappen could do no more than 11th in his car, with team-mate Perez 13th, and the Dutchman said changes made to the car after a “not too bad” FP3 ultimately derailed his challenge.
Asked by Sky F1 if qualifying was worse than he expected, Verstappen said: “Yeah, for sure. I knew that it was already going to be tough to put it on pole, but this I didn’t expect.
“Also, I think throughout the weekend we have been struggling.
“I think FP3 was not too bad, but then we tried a few more things on the car for qualifying where it tipped it over to the car being undriveable again, where car was massively bottoming out in the braking zones and every time I wanted to brake deep and hard, my front wheels were getting unloaded.
“So, like I said on the radio, it was just a shocking experience because also just trying to lean on the car in low speed, just constantly no speed, no traction. Just really difficult to drive.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/verstappen-red-bull-car-undriveable-in-shocking-singapore-f1-qualifying/10521176/
Ferrari drivers Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc would be happy to accept team orders if they are in Formula 1 victory contention at the Singapore Grand Prix.
Sainz rocketed to his second successive F1 pole as Ferrari looked set to lock out the front row, before Mercedes’ George Russell proved to be an interloper after splitting the pair to shuffle Leclerc down to third.
This follows Sainz and Leclerc’s thrilling battle over third place at the Italian Grand Prix, as Sainz managed to absorb the heavy pressure levied upon him by his younger team-mate to secure a first rostrum visit of the year.
Asked by Motorsport.com if they would be allowed to battle in a similar fashion if a potential win was on the table, or if they would be content with team orders, both drivers conceded that they would be willing to follow the team’s instructions to cast victory beyond doubt.
Sainz suggested that a similar battle would be unlikely anyway at the Marina Bay circuit, owing to its tighter and traction-heavy nature.
“First of all, I’m sure that the characteristics of the track is not that it allows to have the nice battles and great wheel-to-wheel racing that we had in Monza, which again was a lot of fun and a great battle,” Sainz explained.
“This track is very, very different. And of course, we will be looking into tomorrow to see everything that we can do to beat the Mercedes to get the cars into 1-2.
“I’m sure that the team will prioritise the overall team result and try to get the win.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/sainz-leclerc-would-accept-singapore-f1-team-orders-if-in-victory-contention/10521194/