Max Verstappen signed off a simply lovely Saturday by taking pole position for the Singapore Grand Prix, following his sprint race win earlier.
The four-time world champion set a best effort of one minute, 31.373 seconds to finish just 0.054 seconds faster than Charles Leclerc and secure his second pole at Marina Bay, having done so for the sprint.
Championship leader Kimi Antonelli and Mercedes teammate George Russell finished just fourth and sixth – with George knowing he will be at the back of the grid with an overhanging engine penalty, while Isack Hadjar will also start from the back following technical issues in Q1.
The first qualifying segment got off to a poor start for Esteban Ocon, who locked up and appeared to touch the wall in Turn 13. Moments later, Lance Stroll suffered a similar issue in Turn 7. Both seemingly escaped those errors without damage.
Isack Hadjar also had an off but ended up stopping out on track. “The engine is off,” he reported. The Red Bull driver eventually managing to restart his car and pitted without a lap time on the board.
Hours after colliding with Oscar Piastri in the sprint race, Lando Norris set the early pace with one minute, 33.047 seconds, 0.029 seconds quicker than his teammate. Verstappen and Hamilton were 0.194 seconds and 0.264 seconds down respectively, with the Mercedes cars over half a second adrift.
With five minutes remaining, Arvid Lindblad, Alexander Albon, Sergio Perez, Valtteri Bottas, Gabriel Bortoleto and Hadjar were the bottom six drivers. Lance Stroll was just 0.04 seconds clear of the Racing Bulls. It did not go any better for Hadjar: “Same issue, I lost the gears,” he said. The Red Bull driver returned to the pitlane and was out of qualifying.
As Hamilton took the lead with a time of one minute, 32.680 seconds and improved upon with one minute, 32.429 seconds, three tenths faster than Leclerc and Norris after their respective improvements, the Silver Arrows ended up P12 and P13, nearly 1.2 seconds adrift.
Further down the classification, major progress from Lindblad and Bortoleto kicked the Aston Martins out of the top 16. Fernando Alonso’s and Lance Stroll’s ended right there.
Hamilton maintained a similar advantage on the opening runs of Q2, with his one minute, 31.766 seconds putting him four tenths clear of Kimi Antonelli. Verstappen was over half a second adrift, complaining of “insanely bad” gear shifts, followed by George Russell, Norris, Piastri and Leclerc – those five drivers within one-and-a-half tenth.
There were theoretically three Q3 spots for midfield teams, and with five minutes remaining, those were occupied by Liam Lawson, Lindblad and Nico Hulkenberg. Pierre Gasly was two tenths away in P11.
Gasly actually improved by six tenths on his final attempt, jumping ahead of all his main rivals. The Racing Bulls managed to regain their advantage over the Alpine, but Pierre still taking the final spot for the top ten shootout, as the Hulk gained an insufficient two tenths late on.
Having clipped the wall in Turn 17, Franco Colapinto ended up down in P16, around 1.2 seconds down on his teammate.
Meanwhile, Hamilton revealed his dominance with one minute, 31.529 seconds, which only Verstappen came close to, in one minute, 31.639 seconds. Norris and Leclerc were 0.366 seconds and 0.424 seconds down respectively. Antonelli and Russell, again, were more than half a second adrift.
It was actually Verstappen who set the pace early on in Q3 with one minute, 31.373 seconds, with Hamilton achieving one minute, 31.496 seconds despite being nearly three tenths faster than his old title rival in sector two.
Antonelli was up to an encouraging third place with one minute, 31.562 seconds, with Leclerc, Norris and Russell all within four tenths of the leader. Piastri, however, was 0.820 seconds adrift, having been slower than anyone but Lindblad in the final sector.
Both Verstappen and Hamilton were unable to improve on their final Q3 run. Lewis was jumped by Ferrari teammate Charles for second place, although it was 0.054 seconds slower than Red Bull’s polesetter.
Piastri was the only other top team driver to improve, by some margin – over three tenths – but that was not enough for him to gain a position. Oscar took seventh behind Kimi, Lando and George.
Gasly was best of the rest for Alpine with a one minute, 32.225 seconds. Lawson and Lindblad ended up 0.144 seconds and 0.556 seconds slower respectively.
Singapore Grand Prix, qualifying results:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Ford 1:31.373
2 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:31.427
3 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:31.496
4 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:31.562
5 Lando Norris McLaren-Mercedes 1:31.712
6 Oscar Piastri McLaren-Mercedes 1:31.860
7 Pierre Gasly Alpine-Mercedes 1:32.225
8 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls-Ford 1:32.369
9 Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls-Ford 1:32.781
10 Nico Hulkenberg Audi 1:32.784
11 Oliver Bearman Haas-Ferrari 1:32.908
12 Esteban Ocon Haas-Ferrari 1:33.323
13 Carlos Sainz Williams-Mercedes 1:33.526
14 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi 1:33.658
15 Franco Colapinto Alpine-Mercedes 1:33.787
16 Alexander Albon Williams-Mercedes 1:34.289
17 Lance Stroll Aston Martin-Honda 1:34.946
18 Sergio Perez Cadillac-Ferrari 1:35.123
19 Valtteri Bottas Cadillac-Ferrari 1:35.984
20 Isack Hadjar Red Bull-Ford No time
21 Fernando Alonso Aston Marin-Honda 1:34.223*
22 George Russell Mercedes 1:31.747*
*Grid penalty for power unit change
Max Verstappen has claimed pole position for the Singapore Grand Prix for the first time in his career, denying the Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton in another competitive Qualifying hour.
Although it was Hamilton who looked to be the favourite after setting the pace in Q1 and Q2, Verstappen’s first effort of 1m 31.373s was all he needed to qualify P1 and continue his strong weekend at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.
Like several of his rivals, Hamilton was unable to improve on his final lap and settled for P3 behind Leclerc, who was just 0.054s slower than Verstappen. They outperformed Kimi Antonelli and Lando Norris in P4 and P5 respectively, with George Russell initially taking P6 with the knowledge of his incoming grid drop.
After recovering from the collision with Norris in the Sprint, Oscar Piastri was seventh ahead of Pierre Gasly and the Racing Bulls of Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad.
Nico Hulkenberg missed out on a place in the top 10, leading Haas’ Ollie Bearman and Esteban Ocon as Carlos Sainz took P14 for Williams. Gabriel Bortoleto also fell short in the second Audi, finishing P15 in front of Alpine driver Franco Colapinto, who hit the barrier on his final lap.
Despite their prediction that this weekend presented a good opportunity, Aston Martin failed to progress to Q2 as Fernando Alonso’s messy final lap left him in P16. He qualified ahead of Williams’ Alex Albon and team mate Lance Stroll, with the Cadillac pair of Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas following in P20 and P21 respectively.
It was a nightmare day for Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar – after retiring from the Sprint, his reliability issues continued and he was unable to complete a representative lap, ending the session at the bottom of the order. As is the case for everyone who was classified behind Russell, he will gain a position once the Briton’s grid penalty is imposed.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/verstappen-beats-leclerc-to-pole-position-for-the-singapore-gp.7yum1V3S9aSTyj3Zzzs0Y9
Max Verstappen was suitably delighted after securing pole position for the Singapore Grand Prix, declaring that “this is the one I wanted” as he chases a maiden triumph at the event.
Fresh from victory in the Sprint race, Verstappen charged to the top spot once more in Saturday night’s main Qualifying session around Marina Bay’s streets – marking the 50th pole of his Grand Prix career.
Singapore is one of only two venues – along with the new-for-2026 Madring track – where Verstappen has yet to claim a Grand Prix win, but the Dutchman will be doing all he can to change that statistic on Sunday.
Reflecting on Qualifying, Verstappen said: “It was good! Just very close; the margins are very close I think between us [the frontrunners] throughout the whole of Qualifying.
“Of course, I’m very happy to be on pole, because this is the one that I wanted. The car has been pretty strong the whole weekend. There are always things that you look into that can be better, but it was enough for pole, so I’m very happy with that.”
Asked specifically about his win-less record in Singapore, having debuted in F1 back in 2015, and why things look more favourable for Red Bull this year, he added: “Yeah, new regulations, and I think our car now works a little bit differently compared to the previous regulations, where we were stronger in different areas of the corner.
“We take it. We’ve been really on a positive trend, so it’s for us I think very special to take the pole here.”
A potential obstacle for Verstappen on race day could come at the start, having described his getaway in the Sprint – where he lost out to Mercedes’ George Russell on the run down to Turn 1 – as “awful”.
“Well, you have to look at it positively,” he commented, when asked if he has any lingering concerns from the Sprint, and his similar struggles last time out at Sepang. “It cannot get worse. It can only get better, right? We’ll see how it goes tomorrow.”
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/this-is-the-one-i-wanted-verstappen-boosted-by-very-special-pole-for-singapore-grand-prix.4GlVhEjfx7X640aHrg3A4z
Ferrari will be pondering whether both its cars should have been on the front row for the Singapore Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton set an impressive pace through the opening segments of qualifying and team-mate Charles Leclerc said “I think the car had potential for pole”.
But ultimately Leclerc came up 0.054s short of beating Max Verstappen’s Red Bull to pole, with Hamilton a further 0.069s off. Small margins, but both drivers felt they could have done better.
Hamilton set the pace in Q1, where he finished 0.345s up on Leclerc, and in Q2, where he became the first driver to set a lap below the 1m32s mark in Singapore this year. In that session he was 0.110s faster than second-placed Verstappen.
But Lewis then made a front-wing change, adding a little more angle on the front-right flap, which fundamentally altered the balance of the car in an unexpected way. Although he then went faster in Q3, it was only a marginal improvement and both Leclerc and Verstappen found more. Some of this can be accounted for through track evolution as the session neared its end.
“I think it’s just balance,” said Hamilton afterwards.
“The car felt good. My team, the engineers, did a fantastic job as well as the mechanics between the sessions.
“I think the car felt amazing in Q1 and Q2. And when I finished the laps, I was like, ‘She’s got more in her.’
“The only way to try and extract that is to try and add wing. And in doing so, I think it just tipped it over the edge.
“It was only one hole [of adjustment] or something like that. But it’s like it was on the knife-edge. And after that, then the car was just snappy and none of the laps in Q3 were any good.
“So I’m grateful to be third, to be honest, given that those laps weren’t very good.”
The theory that the setup change had made the Ferrari a little too ‘on those nose’ was bolstered by Hamilton having to correct huge snaps of oversteer at Turn 3 on both his Q3 laps, then having to saw at the steering wheel through the final chicane.
“There’s a real fine line with our car where it’s over the edge or under the limit and finding that sweet spot is very, very difficult,” said Hamilton.
“I probably had it in the first two, but you have to look for the progress of the track, the grip coming up. So you have to kind of react to that in hindsight.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/how-hamilton-tipped-it-over-the-edge-with-a-setup-change-too-far-in-singapore-gp-qualifying/10863998/
Charles Leclerc was disappointed to miss out on pole position to Max Verstappen for the Singapore Grand Prix, with the Monegasque ruing “mistakes” and “misjudgement” that impacted his Qualifying performance.
After securing a double podium in the Sprint, Ferrari were in contention for another strong result in Qualifying, with Lewis Hamilton setting the pace throughout Q1 and Q2.
Verstappen’s effort was enough to give him provisional pole, and as Hamilton was unable to improve on his final lap, the door opened for Leclerc, who beat his team mate and surged into P2 – qualifying just 0.054s slower than his Red Bull rival.
“Let’s say that the good lap was on the right lap at the end, but I had a lot of struggles during this Qualifying,” Leclerc reflected. “Q1 and Q2 were very difficult.
“I had some weird things going on with the brakes, the car pulling a bit under braking, which is not so nice on a track like here. But then in Q3, the lap was okay. I did some mistakes, and I think there was the potential to be on pole today, but Max just did a better job.
“On my side, I changed a little bit the car [ahead of Qualifying]. I was relatively happy with the car yesterday, so I changed a few things, not so much.
“At the end of the day, it was just a bit of misjudgement in Q3 – with the wind, maybe, we could have done a bit of a better job. But I think if you ask all the drivers on the grid, everybody can find something on that last lap in Q3.”
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/i-had-a-lot-of-struggles-leclerc-reveals-misjudgement-that-cost-him-singapore-pole.10ZX0dKhEvCzFcqEfu3M0m
Lando Norris believes that fifth on the grid for the Singapore Grand Prix is “where we should be”, as McLaren continue to struggle to match the pace of the leading runners this weekend.
The reigning World Champion was only just over three tenths adrift of polesitter Max Verstappen, but it meant Norris also finished behind the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, as well as Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes on Saturday.
Norris had been running fifth in the day’s earlier Sprint before a collision with team mate Oscar Piastri sent them both into a spin, and believes they are the fourth quickest car in Singapore this weekend.
“I think in the end we’re kind of where we should be,” he said “We’ve not done anything, nothing has changed [since the Sprint], so there’s no reason why we’re suddenly going to be on the pace.
“I could obviously put bits together, like I could have a very good sector 1 or very good sector 2. But the car is just too much of a challenge, hence we’re P5 and P7.
“It’s just too difficult, I feel like I’m almost crashing to put in a purple sector but you just can’t do that, the tyres don’t survive.
“Simply the car is too difficult to be in the perfect limit when it’s quick and the chance you put a lap together in that limit is basically impossible.
“Of course I was pushing for it, I was hoping and felt like I had a good idea of what I wanted to do but it just didn’t come towards me. We are where we should be really.”
Piastri was only able to finish seventh in Qualifying after McLaren repaired his damaged car from the earlier collision with Norris, with the stewards taking no further action over the incident.
The Australian, who will start sixth as George Russell serves a grid penalty, also believes that the MCL40 was lacking performance on the streets of Marina Bay compared with Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes
“I think we, to be honest, looked relatively convincingly the third or fourth quickest [car]. I think Max had us covered and I think the Ferraris did too, to be honest,” he said.
“Bit of a shame, I was hoping we had a bit more but I think that was pretty much all we had. It wasn’t the smoothest of sessions, a few mistakes here and there, not that easy to get time out of the car. We’ll try again tomorrow.”
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/we-are-where-we-should-be-norris-and-piastri-reflect-on-mclarens-singapore-gp-qualifying.4c0lo9EiE9BYYL5iqIHNim
Kimi Antonelli declared that he and Mercedes are now “starting to see the potential” in the upgrades they recently introduced, after enjoying a “better day” around Singapore’s Marina Bay Street Circuit.
Heading into the weekend, having struggled to understand the developments they rolled out at Sepang, Mercedes decided to run two different specifications of car – Antonelli sticking with the new parts, and team mate George Russell reverting to the old package.
That initially looked to work in Russell’s favour, as he comfortably led the Mercedes charge in Sprint Qualifying by claiming second on the grid, while Antonelli lined up back in seventh, more than half a second adrift.
However, following a dramatic Sprint, which saw Russell crash out of the lead on the first lap and Antonelli finish fourth, various set-up changes were made to the Italian’s car for main Qualifying, where the intra-team tables were turned.
It was Antonelli who this time led the way in P4, with Russell just under a couple of tenths slower in sixth, though the Briton will drop to the back of the grid in any case thanks to an engine-related penalty.
Asked about his and Mercedes’ apparent progress throughout the weekend, and his car looking stronger on Saturday, Antonelli said: “Yeah, it did feel better, in a better place. I feel like the team did a tremendous job on doing these changes and putting the car in a better window. Although I feel the window was still very, very small during the session.
“The car was reacting differently depending on how I was driving it, and it was difficult to find the right balance on my side throughout Qualifying, where every set [of tyres] you just push it a little more.
“All in all, I think that today was a better day, and we start seeing the potential of the package. Also, we start seeing in which way we need to work. I’m happy with it. A big thanks to the team, and we’ll try to do our best tomorrow.”
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/antonelli-now-seeing-the-potential-in-mercedes-upgrades-after-better-day-in-singapore.1BdEq0Y4u9ZIr3eSyJWhes