Max Verstappen will start the final sprint race of the 2026 Formula 1 season in pole position for the Singapore Grand Prix.
This is the first time the Red Bull driver has come first in a qualifying session of any sort at the Marina Bay Circuit, though he will be investigated afterwards for a yellow flag infringement which occurred in SQ1.
Championship leader Kimi Antonelli will start the sprint race from only seventh position, having been outpaced by the Ferraris and McLarens.
No driver had even set a lap time in Q1 when Sergio Perez caused a yellow flag as he crashed into the Tecpro at Turn 5. The Cadillac driver damaged his front wing and eventually lost it on the racing line, with the red flag waved to clear the debris.
There were just six minutes remaining, with few actually competitive lap times set. As a consequence, the final moments were a rush to get a decent lap time, with cars out in the pitlane several minutes before the light even went green.
Verstappen eventually went fastest with one minute, 33.477 seconds, nearly half a second slower than his own FP1 on the same medium tyre. The Red Bull driver led Charles Leclerc by 0.018 seconds and Russell by 0.096 seconds, with Lewis Hamilton 0.271 seconds down.
Everyone else was at least six tenths adrift, starting with an impressive Nico Hulkenberg for Audi, closely followed by Isack Hadjar, Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri and Antonelli.
Further down the classification, Carlos Sainz was slowest of all. “I had a lot of front locking and no rear, combined,” he complained on the radio. He was eliminated after Q1, like Williams teammate Alexander Albon, the Cadillacs, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and Arvid Lindblad. The Racing Bulls driver was missing one tenth to make the cut, following a confusion created by an FIA software glitch.
Verstappen went 0.75 seconds quicker than the SQ1 fastest time as early as his first attempt in the second segment of sprint qualifying, setting a time of one minute, 32.724 seconds.
However, the four-time champion’s reference was quickly surpassed by Leclerc, Hamilton and Norris, with the Ferrari driver adding one minute, 32.457 seconds to the leaderboard. Antonelli and Russell were six and nine tenths adrift respectively.
Meanwhile, Hadjar, Gabriel Bortoleto, Fernando Alonso, Franco Colapinto, Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman were at risk of elimination. Even Hadjar was missing nearly half a second compared to Nico Hulkenberg.
Russell’s second attempt was no better, with a lock-up into Turn 13. Hadjar’s and Colapinto’s respective improvements knocked the eight-time Grand Prix winner out of the top ten, but a final progress saw him jump to safety in fourth.
Colapinto was therefore eliminated with a 0.094 seconds deficit on Alpine teammate Pierre Gasly, along with Hulkenberg, who was unable to improve late on.
Switching from medium to soft compound as per the regulations, drivers had few chances to make an impact in the eight-minute SQ3 stage.
The McLarens and Mercedes were first out, with Norris setting the pace in one minute, 31.587 seconds, leading Piastri by 0.189 seconds, Russell by 0.250 seconds and Antonelli by 0.518 seconds.
Then it was the Ferraris in action and Leclerc went quickest in one minute, 31.568 seconds, narrowly edging Norris out. Hamilton was nearly two tenths faster than his tea-mate in the first sector but lost even more in the final part to end up 0.134 seconds apart.
Leclerc then improved late on with one minute, 31.399 seconds, but could not hold off a much quicker Verstappen, who set a lap time with one minute, 31.156 seconds on his single attempt – the first time he has won out in a qualifying session at this street circuit, even if this does not count as a pole position in the record books.
Russell scored a front-row spot in the final moments of the session, leading Leclerc, Piastri, Norris and Hamilton.
Antonelli ended up seventh, 0.693 seconds down on Verstappen, with Lawson, Hadjar and Gasly making up the top ten.
Singapore Grand Prix, sprint qualifying:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Ford 1:31.156
2 George Russell Mercedes 1:31.276
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:31.399
4 Oscar Piastri McLaren-Mercedes 1:31.454
5 Lando Norris McLaren-Mercedes 1:31.587
6 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:31.702
7 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:31.849
8 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls-Ford 1:32.341
9 Isack Hadjar Red Bull-Ford 1:32.048
10 Pierre Gasly Alpine-Mercedes 1:33.319
11 Franco Colapinto Alpine-Mercedes 1:33.249
12 Nico Hulkenberg Audi 1:33.420
13 Oliver Bearman Haas-Ferrari 1:33.423
14 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi 1:33.466
15 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin-Honda 1:33.734
16 Esteban Ocon Haas-Ferrari 1:34.368
17 Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls-Ford 1:35.136
18 Lance Stroll Aston Martin-Honda 1:35.662
19 Alexander Albon Williams-Mercedes 1:36.130
20 Sergio Perez Cadillac-Ferrari 1:36.760
21 Valtteri Bottas Cadillac-Ferrari 1:36.868
22 Carlos Sainz Williams-Mercedes 1:37.376
Max Verstappen clinched pole position for the Singapore Sprint, beating Mercedes’ George Russell and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in a busy session under the lights at the Marina Bay Circuit.
With four teams seemingly in the mix after a single hour of Free Practice, Verstappen timed his final lap to perfection to eclipse the efforts of each of his rivals, ending the session with a time of 1m 31.156s.
His lap on the soft tyres left him 0.120s clear of Russell, with Leclerc a further tenth back in P3, but the Dutchman’s result will not be confirmed until he has visited the stewards for a potential yellow flag infringement in SQ1.
The McLaren pair of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris took P4 and P5 respectively, with the Aussie just 0.055s adrift of Leclerc’s time. Lewis Hamilton was sixth in the second Ferrari ahead of Kimi Antonelli – the leader of the Drivers’ Championship – and Racing Bull’s Liam Lawson.
Isack Hadjar and Pierre Gasly completed the top 10 for Red Bull and Alpine with both having lap times deleted in SQ3.
Alpine’s Franco Colapinto finished in P11 after a late lap from Russell knocked him out of the top 10, while the Audi of Nico Hulkenberg followed in P12. Ollie Bearman (Haas), Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi), Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) and Esteban Ocon (Haas) occupied P13 to P16 on the timesheets.
Arvid Lindblad, who previously hinted he would approach this weekend cautiously after crashing at other street circuits, narrowly missed out on a spot in SQ2 and settled for P17, just ahead of Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll.
They enjoyed a margin of half a second over Williams and Cadillac, with Alex Albon leading the backmarkers in P19 as Valtteri Bottas tucked in just behind. Carlos Sainz will line up on the back row with Sergio Perez for Saturday’s 21-lap affair, the Mexican having caused a red flag after finding the barrier in the opening minutes.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/verstappen-clinches-pole-position-in-singapore-sprint-qualifying-ahead-of-russell.4dvkvpkCXftdhX7sLI2dcQ
Max Verstappen is set to be investigated after sprint qualifying for the Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix following an alleged yellow flag infringement.
The Red Bull driver was reported to have overtaken Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton during a yellow flag zone that was caused by Sergio Perez’s damaged Cadillac.
Max Verstappen is set to be investigated after sprint qualifying for the Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix following an alleged yellow flag infringement.
The Red Bull driver was reported to have overtaken Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton during a yellow flag zone that was caused by Sergio Perez’s damaged Cadillac.
Verstappen later topped SQ1 at Marina Bay anyway, setting a 1m33.477s on medium rubber with that putting the four-time world champion quickest by 0.018s over Hamilton’s team-mate Charles Leclerc.
Hamilton finished the session down in fourth, 0.271s off the pace, with Perez being eliminated after setting a 1m36.760s that left Verstappen’s former team-mate in 20th.
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/max-verstappen-to-be-investigated-for-yellow-flag-infringement-at-f1-singapore-gp/10863449/
Kimi Antonelli has conceded that driving Mercedes’ upgraded car in Singapore – amid the team’s decision to split specifications – proved to be a struggle during Sprint Qualifying, with the Italian labelling his version of the W17 as “very difficult” after ending the session in P7.
The Silver Arrows confirmed ahead of the action getting underway at the Marina Bay Street Circuit that George Russell would revert to the Azerbaijan-specification of the car for the event, while Antonelli would continue to run the upgrade that the team brought last time out in Malaysia.
This decision – on a weekend where Russell will serve a grid penalty due to an unavoidable engine change – was made due to the results from the updates at Sepang proving inconclusive.
As such, Antonelli and Russell completed the opening day of action in Singapore with varying specifications – and it was Russell who led the way on the timesheets, the Briton setting the fastest lap in Friday’s sole practice hour before going second-quickest in Sprint Qualifying.
Antonelli, meanwhile, appeared to be off the pace of his team mate and had to settle for seventh place in both sessions.
Asked after Sprint Qualifying if he was surprised by how difficult it had been to get lap time out of the car, the championship leader responded: “Yes and no, to be fair. Already [in] FP1 I was struggling and, yeah, still a lot to understand about this package.
“The car is very difficult, very unpredictable and very difficult to put a lap together. So yeah, it’s a shame because I was coming [here] with high hopes, but so far it’s been very difficult.”
Given the apparent difference in pace between the two Mercedes specifications so far at Marina Bay, Antonelli acknowledged that the rest of the event could prove challenging for him.
“I think it’s going to be a difficult weekend, unless we can pull something out tomorrow,” he explained. “But other than that, it’s going to be very tricky. I don’t really see where we can find seven tenths, but you never know.
“Maybe tonight, Bono [Pete Bonnington, Antonelli’s race engineer], the engineers, we’re going to find something in the car. And for sure, I’m going to try to improve a little bit the driving, and then we’ll see tomorrow where we end up.”
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/antonelli-struggling-with-very-difficult-new-spec-mercedes-after-p7-in-singapore-sprint-qualifying.PuBAg4FVi18iuQaMRyBgS
The FIA has confirmed the existence of a second error during sprint qualifying for the Singapore GP, on top of a glitch in the timing and scoring system which caused some drivers’ times to not be displayed.
SQ1 was halted by a red flag when Sergio Perez hit the barrier at Turn 5, then extracted his car and made his way back to the pits, losing his damaged front wing in the process. This forced race control to pause proceedings while the debris was cleared.
Once the session got back under way, two peculiarities manifested themselves: some lap times not being registered on the system, and several drivers complaining that they had less power than expected. Many of these were informed that the latter issue was the responsibility of the FIA, leading them to conclude that it was related to the software bug which affected last weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.
“We only got one lap. We had some brake issues,” said Carlos Sainz, who was eliminated in SQ1.
“But on top of that, half the cars did the lap with an engine half a second quicker than the others. There was another software issue this time around and we were on the bad end of it.
“For whatever reason, the FIA, like Malaysia, didn’t decide to sort it quickly and were happy to do half of the cars in quali with higher power than the other half of the cars.
“So a bit confused why the sport keeps doing different things depending on who is out in Q1 and who is out in lap one.”
But the governing body has clarified that this was not a software issue but a case of human error regarding the enabling of Overtake Mode, the system which gives drivers access to an extra half-megajoule of energy. This can have far-reaching effects since it can not only have an input into outright laptime on a push lap, but also affect tyre preparation on out-laps.
“During the first period of sprint qualifying there was a human error in Race Control unrelated to the timing issue also encountered in SQ1,” said an FIA spokesperson.
“This issue in question meant overtake mode was not available after the red flag period during SQ1. When it became apparent that overtake mode was not active after the restart, it was then activated for a period of 27 seconds before being deactivated again.
“The FIA acknowledges that this unfortunate human error had an impact on the performance of certain cars based on the timing of their run and their position around the lap. The second and third periods of sprint qualifying were not affected.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/human-error-caused-singapore-gp-sprint-qualifying-glitch/10863489/
Charles Leclerc believes Ferrari were “just not fast enough to fight” for pole position in Sprint Qualifying ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix this weekend.
Leclerc managed to achieve the third fastest time on Friday at the Marina Bay street circuit, just over two tenths away from Sprint polesitter, Max Verstappen.
The Monegasque believes it was the maximum that was possible and that Ferrari still lacks the outright performance of other leading teams, including Red Bull, Mercedes and McLaren.
“I think I gained the lap time that we had to gain,” said Leclerc when asked about switching to the soft Pirelli tyre for the final SQ3 segment, having topped SQ2 with the medium rubber.
“The others had a bit of a different plan, I think they did two cooldown laps, we only did one cooldown lap.
“Honestly, I don’t think it should be an excuse. I think the real pace the last three or four races, we’ve lost a little bit of our performance and we’re just not fast enough to fight with them just yet.
Team mate Lewis Hamilton was only sixth fastest as the McLaren duo split the Briton from Leclerc in the final classification.
The seven-time World Champion had also shown encouraging pace on the medium tyre but switching to the softs, as well as posting only one fastest lap attempt, meant Hamilton was left frustrated as he fought his car throughout his SQ3 flying lap.
“It was looking good in SQ1 and SQ2 and then I don’t really know where it went away,” he said.
“We did a slightly different run plan to the others. It was my choice and think I got that wrong. But ultimately the car was just very oversteery on that lap.
“I don’t know if the rears were not ready or were overheating, it was difficult to say but it was very snappy, very oversteery and it just wasn’t a good lap overall.
“I had the pace in the first two sessions and then all of a sudden I didn’t have the grip in the rear for some reason on that last lap. It is what it is.”
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/just-not-fast-enough-to-fight-leclerc-reflects-on-ferraris-singapore-gp-sprint-qualifying.21EtqZ7mRhjgCybXJkEs5Y
Max Verstappen has avoided a grid penalty for Saturday’s Sprint in Singapore after being investigated for allegedly breaching yellow flag regulations during Sprint Qualifying.
Red Bull driver Verstappen was shown to have overtaken Ferrari rival Lewis Hamilton under yellows brought out when Sergio Perez’s Cadillac hit the barriers in the opening SQ1 phase.
“Max overtook me under yellow flags,” Hamilton promptly reported over the radio. Verstappen, meanwhile, commented: “I’ll let Lewis by again. I think I passed him before the yellow, but I just want to be safe.”
After noting the incident and then investigating it thoroughly post-session, the stewards determined that while Verstappen had indeed breached the yellow flag regulations, the circumstances around it meant his actions did not warrant a penalty.
The stewards’ decision document read: “As Car 3 [Verstappen] was exiting Turn 7 on a push lap, a single yellow flag was displayed. Car 44 [Hamilton] was ahead of Car 3 and had been warned of Car 3’s approach. The driver of Car 44 said that after exiting Turn 7, he slowed and moved to the right to ensure he was off the racing line. Car 3 overtook Car 44 prior to Turn 8 while both cars were still in the yellow flag sector. Car 3 then abandoned the push lap.
“The driver of Car 3 explained that he was on throttle exiting Turn 7 and then saw the yellow flag and lifted. This was confirmed by telemetry. Within approximately 40 metres of entering the yellow flag sector, the driver of Car 3 had lifted fully off throttle. The driver of Car 44 was braking and had reduced speed to less than 60km/h at the point Car 3 overtook.
“Because Car 3 was on a push lap and was on throttle out of Turn 7 and Car 44 had slowed, the speed differential at the point of the overlap was significant despite the fact that the driver of Car 3 had also started braking.
“The stewards were satisfied that the driver of Car 3 reacted appropriately to the yellow flag by lifting off throttle and reducing speed. The speed of Car 3 at the overtake point was some 70km/h less than Car 3’s speed on another push lap in the same session.
“The driver of Car 3 explained that to have avoided the overtake would have required him to have braked very heavily and he considered to have done so would have potentially created an unsafe situation.
“The stewards determined that the driver of Car 3 breached the yellow flag regulation by overtaking Car 44. However, the stewards were satisfied that the overtake was an unfortunate consequence of the significant closing speed differential and, in these circumstances, determined not to impose a penalty.”
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/stewards-deliver-verdict-after-verstappen-investigated-for-yellow-flag-incident-in-sprint-qualifying.1tKjwEbNYya8XF9mSJ5sFv