The two championship contenders will be on the front row at Marina Bay as Lando Norris claimed pole position from Max Verstappen. Last year’s Singapore Grand Prix race winner Carlos Sainz crashed out during the top ten shootout.
Sainz lost control of his Ferrari on the exit of Turn 17 while getting his car up ready for a hot lap, which ended in the wall bringing out the red flag.
Verstappen set a time of one minute, 29.791 seconds to go top but did so under double-waved yellows in the immediate aftermath of Sainz’s crash, and so this was deleted. The incident also cost Norris a chance to go top, as his series of purple sectors did not count due to the stoppage.
When the session resumed 15 minutes later, none of those without a lap opted to do a quick run on used tyres and instead waited for the final moment with a new set of softs.
Oscar Piastri, who was on provisional pole, set a time of one minute, 29.953 seconds benchmark – but Norris beat this with one minute, 29.525 seconds. Verstappen got closest, setting one minute, 29.728 seconds lap to get onto the front row.
Both Mercedes booked the second row ahead of Piastri, as Lewis Hamilton got third by 0.026 seconds over George Russell as the Brackley squad appeared more competitive compared to Saturday.
Ferrari endured a miserable session as Leclerc’s lap was deleted, although it was only good enough for seventh position as Nico Hulkenberg’s fastest lap was four thousandths of a second faster.
Thus, Leclerc and Sainz will start from P9 and P10, behind Fernando Alonso and Yuki Tsunoda on row four.
Alex Albon was just 0.024 seconds off from making it into Q3, having been bumped out by Fernando Alonso at the very close of the session. The Williams driver was heard to be upset by his team for lack of communication with tyre preparation ahead of his first lap. Although he improved next time out, it was ultimately not enough.
Franco Colapinto was in the relegation zone ahead of the final Q1 runs, but the Williams driver was able set the ninth-fastest time in that segment. But he too fell on the wrong side of the cut-off in Q2, just 0.007 seconds behind his teammate.
Sergio Perez was a considerable exit in Q2, qualifying only P13 with a lap 0.9 seconds short of his teammate Verstappen in that session. This put him ahead of the returning Kevin Magnussen and Alpine’s Esteban Ocon.
Daniel Ricciardo was shuffled into the drop zone at the end of Q1 by Ocon, having peaked with P12 with his final lap as the other drivers improved.
Lance Stroll could not progress either and, although Pierre Gasly improved on his final effort, it only proved to be the difference between P18 and P19.
The Alpine driver moved ahead of Valtteri Bottas but was eliminated in Q1. The Saubers propped up the order, Bottas half a second clear of teammate Zhou Guanyu.
So expect an exciting race following qualifying with Lando Norris and Max Verstappen starting alongside each other. Lewis Hamilton is directly behind and has a good seat in terms of the championship fight. Bring on the night race!
Singapore Grand Prix, qualifying positions:
1 Lando Norris McLaren 1:29.525
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:29.728
3 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:29.841
4 George Russell Mercedes 1:29.867
5 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:29.953
6 Nico Hulkenberg Haas 1:30.115
7 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:30.214
8 Yuki Tsunoda RB 1:30.354
9 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:29.747
10 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:30.108
11 Alexander Albon Williams 1:30.474
12 Franco Colapinto Williams 1:30.481
13 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:30.579
14 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:30.653
15 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:30.769
16 Daniel Ricciardo RB 1:31.085
17 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:31.094
18 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:31.312
19 Valtteri Bottas Sauber 1:31.572
20 Zhou Guanyu Sauber 1:32.054
Lando Norris claimed pole position for the Singapore Grand Prix after getting the better of championship rival Max Verstappen in Saturday night’s qualifying session at Marina Bay, which included a crash for Carlos Sainz at the start of Q3.
McLaren driver Norris produced a blistering time of 1m 29.525s in what was effectively a one-lap shootout following Sainz’s shunt, finishing a couple of tenths clear of Verstappen’s Red Bull and another tenth ahead of the Mercedes drivers.
Lewis Hamilton bounced back from some recent qualifying struggles – and balance issues throughout practice – to pip team mate George Russell to third, with the other McLaren of Oscar Piastri having to settle for fifth position.
Ferrari endured a disastrous end to qualifying when Sainz hit the wall at the final corner as he prepared to start a lap, putting him 10th, with Charles Leclerc only ninth thanks to his lap being deleted for exceeding track limits.
Nico Hulkenberg was a fine sixth for Haas in another trademark qualifying performance from the German, while Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and RB’s Yuki Tsunoda also capitalised on the Scuderia’s troubles to finish P7 and P8.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/norris-beats-verstappen-to-pole-for-singapore-gp-after-sainz-crashes-out.1t3YMBm5LhooXXorg9GGGE
Daniel Ricciardo joked he would like Nelson Piquet Jr back on the Formula 1 grid to help his Singapore Grand Prix efforts after a “miserable” qualifying at the Marina Bay Circuit.
The RB driver failed to escape Q1 elimination on a weekend where his future in F1 has been put in doubt, with rumours swirling that he will be replaced by Liam Lawson from the next race, the United States Grand Prix, onwards.
Despite the added pressure, Friday’s performance provided optimism of a top-10 berth at the end of qualifying, only for a switch to softs to derail his form. Added to his pain was team-mate Yuki Tsunoda’s effort to reach Q3 for the first time since Hungary – with the Japanese driver going on to qualify in eighth place.
“We didn’t really change much,” said Ricciardo, when asked why the pace had dropped.
“We were in a good place yesterday so we were pretty upbeat about it, we weren’t chasing our tail. Honestly, the medium this morning was good, it felt like we started off on the same foot as yesterday, but then I put the soft on and I was nowhere.
“So we did a bit of fine-tuning for quali and I thought we would be OK, but again, I wasn’t comfortable on the soft.
“It was… I would say miserable because we were somewhere yesterday, genuinely, and we didn’t expect… there wasn’t any big mistakes, but I knew when I crossed the line that it wasn’t quick. It just didn’t feel that nice.
“This morning, you could say that ‘oh that soft didn’t work’ but we had three of them today and we weren’t competitive on any of them.”
“Hopefully, [we get] a well-timed safety car,” he said. “Bring Piquet back, and let’s make it happen!”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/ricciardo-wants-piquet-back-for-rescue-after-miserable-singapore-qualifying/10656637/
Charles Leclerc felt Ferrari “threw everything in the bin” with its tyre temperatures in the final part of Q3 for the Singapore Grand Prix, and reckoned he lost second on the grid due to insufficient warm-up.
The Monegasque said that his confidence in the SF-24 car was renewed after a bruising FP3 in which Ferrari seemed to be suddenly off the pace, as the cooler temperatures in qualifying played into the Italian team’s hand.
However, Leclerc could only manage a 1m30.119s lap at the end of the crucial Q3 session following a red flag caused by a crash for his team-mate Carlos Sainz.
The deletion of this effort, which would only have been good enough for seventh on the grid, means he will start ninth and ended Ferrari’s run of consecutive pole positions at Marina Bay dating back to 2019.
Leclerc reckoned that the front tyres came out of their blankets too cold ahead of his final Q3 run, which sapped him of the grip needed to challenge polesitter Lando Norris and fellow front-row starter Max Verstappen.
“Q1, Q2 was going well, I was kind of hopeful again after FP3 that went wrong,” Leclerc revealed. “But then I got out of the box in Q3 and the front tyres were way cooler.
“We do so much preparation all weekend to get to this one lap in quali, where we know it’s as important as Monaco, and we get out of the box and we are way too cold on the front tyres. And that puts all of our weekend into a very bad place.
“We don’t know the exact issue yet, but fact is we started the lap with two cold front tyres, locked up into Turn 1 and that was it. I never really had the front grip I wanted.
“[Even after FP3] we were expecting to have a strong quali. Q1 and Q2 did confirm that we were on the pace to do a good thing. And then we threw everything in the bin with the Q3 tyre temperature issue. We’ve got to investigate that.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/leclerc-ferrari-threw-front-row-in-the-bin-with-cold-tyres-in-singapore-q3-lap/10656728/
Lando Norris was satisfied with his pole-claiming performance during qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix, with the McLaren driver admitting that he enjoyed the pressure that came with having to rely on just one lap in Q3. However, team mate Oscar Piastri cut a frustrated figure after ending the session in P5.
Having appeared to be the driver to beat throughout the weekend’s practice sessions, Norris continued the theme by looking fast during the early stages of qualifying. However, when a crash for Carlos Sainz triggered the red flags in Q3, most of the pack then only had time for one flying lap when the session resumed.
Fortunately for Norris his sole effort of 1m 29.525s proved to be enough to slot into P1 on the grid, putting him two tenths clear of Max Verstappen in second. Reflecting on his lap after jumping out of the car, Norris admitted that it had not necessarily been smooth sailing.
“It was tough,” the Briton said. “Especially through qualifying I was finding it a little difficult to progress much and to get a lot of lap time, and more of the guys around seemed to get quicker and quicker so that put me under a bit more pressure, especially with just one lap at the end.
“But it was good enough for pole and I’m happy with that, especially here in Singapore. A good feeling, I felt good all weekend, I felt confident – maybe not so much in quali, but we got the job done.”
“Like I said, the car’s been feeling good – when you have a good-feeling car and you’re confident then you can go out and push and you can get the lap times, so I did the job I had to do today and [I’m] excited to see what we can do tomorrow.”
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/norris-thrilled-to-take-singapore-pole-under-pressure-while-piastri-blames.5TNWUhKcuWo7TUze5hxzUk