Verstappen edges Russell for Singapore Sprint pole but penalty threat looms

Max Verstappen bested George Russell for pole position for the Singapore Grand Prix Sprint in a tightly contested shootout for top spot, pending a stewards’ review of an alleged yellow flag violation. If it holds up, the pole will be Verstappen’s first in any qualifying format in Singapore, and it came despite a frantic energy recovery system change in the lead-up to the session.

Charles Leclerc led the final qualifying segment, but the Ferrari driver and four others opted to set two flying laps given the low rate of degradation on the soft tire.

Verstappen, however, was part of another five-driver group that bided time for one fast lap as the checkered flag flew. The Dutchman was sensational with his single attempt, setting a dominant first sector to go with a purple final split to storm top spot with a best time of 1m31.156s.

Russell timed his run to be last over the line and was faster than Verstappen in the middle sector, but even a competitive final split wasn’t enough for the Mercedes man to overcome the Red Bull Racing car’s speed in the first split, leaving him second best by 0.12s.

“It’s always close in Singapore,” Verstappen said. “Always on the lap itself you’re pushing as hard as you think is possible, close to the walls in places. Once we bolted on the soft tires it felt like the car was coming alive a little bit more, but I did not expect this. Very happy to be first.

“The last few races we’ve been a lot stronger. This track still highlights a few little weaknesses in the car, but we managed to drive with them as well as possible.”

Verstappen’s hold on pole position is threatened, however, by a looming stewards investigation into him passing Lewis Hamilton under yellow flags in SQ1, though he said over team radio at the time that his pass was simultaneous with the flags flying.

Leclerc hung onto third place, 0.243s adrift of Verstappen, and will start alongside McLaren’s Oscar Piastri on the second row, the Australian 0.055s further back.

His teammate Lando Norris ran out of grip on his second lap and qualified fifth, 0.431s off the pace, but kept himself ahead of Hamilton in sixth. The Ferrari driver’s final lap had looked spectacular, with the car dancing on the limit of grip, but it cost him in the final sector, where he lost almost 0.45s of his 0.546s gap to pole.

Kimi Antonelli qualified seventh, 0.693s off the pace and 0.573s behind teammate Russell, in a concerning development for Mercedes. The championship leader is running with the aerodynamic upgrade the team brought in Malaysia – though the team rolled him back to a previous-spec front wing after Sprint qualifying – while Russell is using an older specification in a bid to troubleshoot the car’s lack of competitiveness in Sepang.

Though Russell has a fresher engine, Singapore is not a power-sensitive circuit, and this is unlikely to have been decisive.

Liam Lawson qualified eighth ahead of Isack Hadjar and Pierre Gasly to complete the top 10.

Franco Colapinto missed a spot in the pole shootout by 0.094s and will start 11th ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, Oliver Bearman and Gabriel Bortoleto.

Fernando Alonso qualified 15th ahead of Esteban Ocon, who couldn’t string together a representative time.

Arvid Lindblad was knocked out 17th, just 0.088s short of a spot in SQ2.

Lance Stroll followed a further 0.526s adrift ahead of Alex Albon. It’s the first time in any qualifying format that Williams hasn’t got at least one driver into the top 18.

Sergio Perez was 20th despite crashing at Turn 5 around halfway through the session, breaking his Cadillac’s front wing. Although he managed to limp back to pit lane, the front wing caught under his car littered debris on the track, necessitating a red flag for cleaning. The Mexican was noted for driving in an unsafe condition, but the stewards decided against penalizing him.

Valtteri Bottas qualified 21st ahead of Carlos Sainz, who complained of front locking on his was to 22nd.

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