Max Verstappen maintained his rich vein of form to claim pole position for Saturday’s Sprint at the Singapore Grand Prix but is under an investigation for passing Lewis Hamilton under yellow flags earlier on in Sprint Qualifying.
Fresh from finally winning Red Bull’s first race of the season from their first pole last week in Malaysia, Verstappen needed just a single flying lap at the end of SQ3 to claim pole by just over a tenth of a second from Mercedes’ George Russell.
But championship leader Kimi Antonelli was only seventh in the other Mercedes, the one featuring their problematic upgrade introduced last week in Malaysia. Russell, who will serve a grid penalty in Sunday’s main Grand Prix, has their older specification car and qualified half a second ahead of the newer one.
Verstappen will head to the stewards for an incident in SQ1 when he overtook Hamilton when yellow flags were showing for debris on the track after Cadillac’s Sergio Perez had hit the barriers. Verstappen said over the radio he had let the Ferrari back through, but passing is forbidden in yellow-flag zones.
Ferrari had looked to be the team to beat heading into SQ3 and Charles Leclerc held provisional pole after his first lap but the Monegasque was shuffled back to third place in the end.
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Watch Verstappen claim Sprint pole!
Hamilton had also looked a pole contender but ended up sixth behind the McLaren duo of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris in fourth and fifth respectively.
Liam Lawson was eighth for Racing Bulls ahead of the Red Bull of Isack Hadjar, who had his SQ3 lap time deleted. Alpine’s Pierre Gasly was 10th.
The start of SQ2 had been delayed due to a timings issue that meant some of the final lap times of SQ1 were not initially registered before a definitive final order was confirmed and qualifying resumed.
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Sergio Perez brings out an early red flag in Sprint Qualifying at the Singapore Grand Prix.
The FIA also revealed there had been an unrelated incident due to “human error in Race Control” regarding the activation of Overtake Mode after the debris-triggered red flag in SQ1, meaning some cars benefitted from boost mode and others did not for a portion of the final laps of the opening session.
“During the first period of Sprint Qualifying there was a human error in Race Control unrelated to the timing issue also encountered in SQ1. This issue in question meant Overtake Mode was not available after the red flag period during SQ1,” read an FIA statement.
“When it became apparent that Overtake Mode was not active after the restart, it was then activated for a period of 27 seconds before being deactivated again.
“The FIA acknowledges that this unfortunate human error had an impact on the performance of certain cars based on the timing of their run and their position around the lap. The second and third periods of Sprint Qualifying were not affected.”
Racing Bulls’ Arvid Lindblad made a surprise early exit in 17th place, while Williams’ Carlos Sainz was slowest of all in 22nd.
More to follow…
Sky Sports F1’s live Singapore GP Sprint weekend schedule
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Look back at some of the most dramatic moments to have taken place at the Singapore Grand Prix
Saturday October 10
9am: Singapore GP Sprint build-up*
10am: Singapore GP SPRINT*
1pm: Singapore Grand Prix Qualifying build-up
2pm: SINGAPORE GP QUALIFYING*
4pm: Ted’s Qualifying Notebook
Sunday October 11
11.30am: Grand Prix Sunday: Singapore GP build-up
1pm: THE SINGAPORE GRAND PRIX
3pm: Chequered Flag: Singapore GP reaction
4pm: Ted’s Notebook
*also on Sky Sports Main Event
Formula 1 is in Singapore for the last Sprint weekend of the season with Sunday’s Grand Prix at 1pm (build-up from 11.30am) live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime
