Verstappen pips Ferraris to pole in Singapore

Max Verstappen beat Charles Leclerc to claim his 50th grand prix pole position in Singapore.

For the second weekend in succession, Verstappen needed only one lap to cement pole, with his first lap of 1m 31.373s putting him into top spot. He was closely challenged, though, by the Ferrari drivers, in particular Lewis Hamilton, who looked in sizzling form during the first runs after having topped Q1 and Q2. He was only 0.123s adrift with his first attempt, and after correcting a slide through Turn 3 and understeering through the final chicane, he appeared to have time still on the table. His second lap, though, couldn’t live up to his first and failed to better his time.

Leclerc instead took the baton for Ferrari, but though the Monegasque strung together a clean lap, he could only reduce the margin to 0.054s.

Verstappen appeared to complain of power problems on his final lap and couldn’t improve his time, but his first lap was enough to claim his first grand prix pole position in Singapore, having started from P1 in the sprint. His second consecutive pole in 2026 made him just the fifth driver in Formula 1 history to take 50 pole positions, after Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel.

“It was good, just very close – the margins are very close between us throughout all of qualifying,” he said. “Of course very happy to be on pole because this is the one that I wanted.

“The car’s been pretty strong all weekend. We have been really on a positive trend, so for us it’s very special to take pole here.”

Despite having looked like the slower Ferrari driver for much of the weekend, Leclerc felt that pole position could have been his with a better run through qualifying and a cleaner final Q3 lap.

“Q1 and Q2 were very difficult – I had some weird things going on with the brakes – but then in Q3 the lap was OK,” he said. “I did some mistakes. I think there was some potential to be on pole today, but Max just did a better job.”

Hamilton lamented his decision to chase the evolving circuit grip levels in missing out on at least a front-row start.

“We made some changes going into qualifying. The car was feeling so much better, and I really felt like she had more in her,” he said.

“We got to Q3 and snaps into [Turns] 1 and 3 put me 0.2s down. The rest of the lap was good. Then the last lap I just struggled again with snapping.

“I think 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. It’s still a good result for us to have two Ferraris up there. We could definitely hopefully work as a team tomorrow to try and hold onto Max and put them under pressure.”

Kimi Antonelli qualified fourth from Mercedes, 0.189s off the pace – a much-improved result on his distant seventh in Sprint qualifying – despite backing out of his final lap.

Lando Norris qualified fifth and 0.339s off the pace ahead of George Russell, though the Englishman will start from the back of the grid with an engine penalty. Russell’s power unit change will promote Oscar Piastri from seventh in qualifying ot sixth on the grid after lapping 0.487s off Verstappen’s pace.

Pierre Gasly headed the midfield in eighth ahead of Racing Bulls teammates Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad in RB’s first double Q3 appearance since July’s British Grand Prix.

Nico Hulkenberg qualified 11th ahead of Haas teammates Oliver Bearman and Esteban Ocon.

Carlos Sainz was 14th for Williams, heading Gabriel Bortoleto and Franco Colapinto, for whom a slap of the barriers at the end of his final lap left him without damage but 16th and last in Q2.

Fernando Alonso qualified 17th, the Spaniard losing out on a Q2 berth by just 0.054s after missing the apex at Turn 16. With teammate Lance Stroll knocked out 0.723s further adrift in 19th, a disappointing session was cemented for Aston Martin, which had hoped the street track would minimize its straight-line weaknesses.

Alex Albon sandwiched his Williams between Alonso and Stroll in 18th, while Cadillac pair Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas were knocked out 20th and 21st.

Isack Hadjar did not set a time and will start the race from the back row after a drivetrain issue prevented him from completing a lap.

RESULTS