Max Verstappen takes his 50th career pole ahead of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton in a Qualifying session that was too close to call throughout.
Q1: Hadjar’s Sprint Race Troubles Resurface
Less than a minute into the first session, Esteban Ocon found the barrier at Turn 13. He locked up going into the corner, lightly touched the wall but managed to find reverse and continue on in the session.
Shortly after, Lance Stroll caused a second yellow flag in the first minute of Q1, this time at Turn 7. Luckily for him, he also managed to get his Aston Martin back onto the track.
After retiring from this morning’s Sprint Race, Isack Hadjar suffered another mechanical issue. He pulled over to the side of the track, reporting issues with his Red Bull. Between Qualifying, Red Bull were able to change his power unit but Hadjar was forced to retire from the session after reporting he “lost his gears”, the same issue he had in the Sprint.
In the end, Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time with a 1:32.429, 3 and a half tenths ahead of his Ferrari teammate, Charles Leclerc.
Eliminated: Fernando Alonso, Alex Albon, Lance Stroll, Sergio Pérez, Valtteri Bottas and Isack Hadjar.
Q2: Is it Hammertime?
Hamilton continued his fine form in the first runs of Q2, going 4 tenths faster than championship leader, Kimi Antonelli.
The Ferrari driver extended his gap at the top through the second runs with a storming lap, this time ahead of Lando Norris by 3 tenths, showing incredible, pole position worthy pace.
Despite complaining about his “insanely bad” downshifts earlier on in the session, Max Verstappen put in a great lap and closed the gap to his former rival, Hamilton, by +0.101. Not much separated the pair going into the final, deciding stage of Qualifying.
Eliminated: Hulkenburg, Bearman, Ocon, Sainz, Bortoleto, Colapinto.
Q3: Verstappen vs Hamilton
Hamilton had a moment through Turn 7, his Ferrari looking incredibly unbalanced through Q3, much like it was during Sprint Qualifying yesterday.
The moment swung provisional pole towards Verstappen which meant that before the glory runs, only 0.123 separated the top two.
On the second runs, another slide at the final chicane lost Hamilton more time in his final flying lap. This left him only third in Qualifying after looking to have the strongest package up until Q3.
The Brit will start behind Leclerc, who also had troubles with the balance of his Ferrari. However, he managed to pull out a great last lap out of nowhere to put his car on the front row for the main race.
Meanwhile, Verstappen claimed his second consecutive pole position, putting him in the best position to take his first Singapore Grand Prix victory. Both Ferraris being behind could pose a threat however and throw off Red Bull’s strategy plan with Hadjar starting at the back of the grid as a consequence of his engine gremlins.
Behind the top 3, Antonelli will start ahead of both McLarens who had another tricky Saturday session after their Sprint Race clash.
Image credit : Formula 1 via X