Lando Norris leads Max Verstappen in the fight for pole at the Singapore Grand Prix as the two title contenders start tomorrow’s race side-by-side.
Q1
Track conditions were proving to be a difficult challenge for the drivers in the early parts of qualifying, with rain last night washing away any rubber that had been laid down during yesterday’s practice sessions, and with FP3 held earlier today in very different conditions, grip levels were a massive unknown for many drivers, as we saw many wrestle their cars around the track and fight to stay out of the wall, and stay in contention.
The lack of rubber also meant that track evolution was a big factor, with times getting exponentially quicker as the session went on, as evidenced by Albon briefly occupying top spot in this session in his Williams, before it was taken back by Lando Norris.
Daniel Ricciardo would have looked to have a strong performance this weekend after rumours of his potential departure from F1 creeped up once again. However, despite his RB looking strong throughout much of practice, he was unable to convert it into a Q2 appearance, and starts tomorrow’s race in 16th.
ELIMINATED
16. Daniel Ricciardo – RB +0.097
17. Lance Stroll – Aston Martin +0.106
18. Pierre Gasly – Alpine +0.324
19. Valtteri Bottas – Kick Sauber +0.584
20. Zhou Guanyu – Kick Sauber +1.066
Q2
It was a session of two halves for Max Verstappen. Whilst demonstrating good pace on his opening lap of Q2, he almost took himself out of contention with a massive moment on the final corner, but the Dutchman did very well to keep his car out of the wall. Then, a few minutes later, he would go on to set his final lap of the session, where he would through the car around with great precision to bring himself up to the sharp end of the grid.
Verstappen’s teammate however did not get the same positive ending for Q2. Sergio Perez, after getting back into some good form in Baku, was struggling for pace once again, and would end up finding himself knocked out of Q2, starting the Singapore Grand Prix in 13th for the 2nd year running.
ELIMINATED
11. Alex Albon – Williams +0.024
12. Franco Colapinto – Williams +0.031
13. Sergio Perez – Red Bull +0.129
14. Kevin Magnussen – Haas +0.203
15. Esteban Ocon – Alpine +0.319
Q3
A big crash took place early on in Q3, as Carlos Sainz had a big snap at the final corner, and whilst Verstappen was able to save himself in Q2, Sainz was unable to do so. Oscar Piastri had already set his time, and Verstappen had came round to cross the line right before the red flag. However, Verstappen’s time was deleted due to double yellow flags being waved as he went past the wreckage of Sainz’s Ferrari. Fortunately for Verstappen, he backed off sufficiently, and therefore would not receive any further punishment.
Once the green flag was brought back out, it took a few minutes for all the drivers to come out to set their laps for what was now effectively a one shot qualifying session. Piastri, the only driver currently with a time, was the first to cross the line at the end of Q3, improving marginally, but would fall down the order to 5th after all laps were finished.
Lando Norris would go nearly half a second quicker than his teammate, and now it was up to the chasing pack to try and take pole away from the McLaren driver. Charles Leclerc was first, but never provided much of a challenge before having had his time deleted to give Ferrari the worst imaginable Q3.
Hamilton would briefly occupy 2nd place, 3 tenths slower than Norris, before that was taken away by Max Verstappen, whose fortunes around this track have been significantly better than at last year’s race. Whilst it isn’t pole for the reigning world champion, whose last one was back in Imola, lining up on the front row is still a good result following on from a string of a couple races where the team struggled to get the car up to a competitive pace.
Qualifying results
1. Lando Norris – McLaren 1:29.525
2. Max Verstappen – Red Bull +0.203
3. Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes +0.316
4. George Russell – Mercedes +0.342
5. Oscar Piastri– McLaren +0.428
6. Nico Hulkenberg – Haas +0.590
7. Fernando Alonso – Aston Martin +0.689
8. Yuki Tsunoda – Alpha Tauri +0.829
9. Charles Leclerc – Ferrari NO TIME
10. Carlos Sainz – Ferrari NO TIME
