By Joe Murphy
Max Verstappen took pole position for the Singapore Grand Prix sprint at Marina Bay tonight, his first ever pole of any kind at this circuit.
The session was chaotic from the start. With four teams looking in the mix after one hour of practice, SQ1 was red flagged before anyone had set a time when Cadillac’s Sergio Perez hit the Tecpro barrier at turn five and scattered his front wing across the track. When the session restarted with six minutes left there was a frantic queue in the pitlane. Verstappen eventually set the pace with a 1:33.477, just 0.018 seconds ahead of Charles Leclerc and 0.096 ahead of George Russell. Lewis Hamilton was fourth. The FIA later admitted a human error in race control after the red flag meant overtake mode was not available and then was only activated for 27 seconds, which affected some cars. There was also a software glitch that delayed the start of SQ2 by 16 minutes.
SQ2 saw Ferrari briefly take control, with Leclerc fastest on a 1:32.246 ahead of Hamilton and Lando Norris. Championship leader Kimi Antonelli struggled and only just made it through in seventh. Eliminated in SQ2 were Franco Colapinto in 11th for Alpine, Nico Hulkenberg 12th for Audi, Ollie Bearman 13th for Haas, Gabriel Bortoleto 14th, Fernando Alonso 15th and Esteban Ocon 16th.
SQ3 was run on soft tyres. McLaren went early and Norris posted a 1:31.587 to go top before Leclerc took provisional pole with a 1:31.399. Verstappen had stayed in the garage while Red Bull checked the rear of his RB22. He came out late, went purple in sector one and three and stopped the clock at 1:31.156, a tenth clear.
He finished 0.120 seconds ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell in second and 0.243 ahead of Leclerc in third. Oscar Piastri was fourth for McLaren just 0.055 behind Leclerc, Lando Norris fifth, Lewis Hamilton sixth, Antonelli only seventh 0.693 off pole, Liam Lawson eighth for Racing Bulls, Isack Hadjar ninth and Pierre Gasly tenth after both had their final laps deleted for track limits.
Out in SQ1 were Arvid Lindblad 17th, Lance Stroll 18th, Alex Albon 19th, Perez 20th, Valtteri Bottas 21st and Carlos Sainz last after complaining of front locking and no rear grip.
Verstappen was under investigation after the session for passing Hamilton under yellow flags in SQ1 while Hamilton was on a slow lap and Verstappen on a fast lap after the Perez debris. The stewards spoke to both drivers, looked at telemetry and in-car footage, and ruled that while he had technically breached the rules it was an unfortunate consequence of the closing speed differential and took no further action, so he keeps pole.
