Verstappen building major momentum as 'no-one very happy' at McLaren

Max Verstappen is too far behind, and Kimi Antonelli too far ahead, to consider that Red Bull's revival might create any real jeopardy in the championship fight - but the Dutchman is certainly building some major momentum as the Formula 1 season moves into its closing stages.

Verstappen finished Saturday in Singapore with pole position for the grand prix to add to the sprint-race victory he had completed in tricky wet conditions earlier in the day.

And that gives him a great opportunity to complete a second grand prix victory within a week if he can convert on Sunday.

Verstappen has two eager Ferrari drivers right behind him, after Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton both felt that they had just missed out on a pole position that was possible.

He also has concerns about Red Bull's inconsistent starts - he lost the lead off the line both in Malaysia last weekend and in the sprint.

If he does drop back at the start in Singapore, it is the sort of track where overtaking is at a premium and he will not find it as easy to get back in front as he did on his way to his first victory of the season.

And he is, as one would expect, not getting ahead of himself.

"It was a good qualifying," Verstappen said. "It was always very close and we got ahead when it mattered and we are very happy with that.

"All weekend the car has been in a good window and that makes it a lot easier to find your rhythm. Incredibly happy to start first. Still a long race ahead, a lot of things can go wrong but we have done everything up until now well so hopefully we can continue that tomorrow.

"It's been a really positive last few races and we want to keep that momentum going."

Verstappen's maiden win of the season at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia last weekend came after a run of three podium finishes in Italy, Spain and Azerbaijan, the last of which might very well have been a first victory had he not had problems in qualifying that left him eighth on the grid when he could have been on the front row.

His upturn in form has come as a result of steady work from Red Bull in improving their car and getting it into a position where he feels he can predict its behaviour and therefore push to the limit.

When a Red Bull is in that spot, Verstappen can be close to unbeatable.

He proved that in his remarkable comeback last year, when he gave McLaren and Lando Norris nightmares with a quite brilliant second half of the season that saw him eat into a 100-point deficit to the championship lead and ultimately miss out on taking a fifth title by just two points.

This year, Verstappen's deficit to Antonelli is even bigger than that.

He is 129 points behind the Mercedes driver with only 175 still remaining, assuming the two end-of-season races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi do actually take place in the context of the war in the Middle East.

It would take some kind of miracle - involving not only a non-stop stream of wins for Verstappen and a highly unlikely run of poor form and bad luck for Antonelli - for him to turn that around. So the prospect can be realistically dismissed.

But he certainly looks as if he will be a contender at the front for the remainder of the season.

If that is not a major concern for Antonelli, it certainly is for McLaren.

They had their own purple patch in the summer, when Lando Norris took consecutive wins in Hungary and the Netherlands, and would have won in Madrid had it not been for the unfortunate timing of a virtual safety car.

But the world champions have slipped from competitiveness in recent races, and before the Singapore Grand Prix they lie in third place in the constructors' championship, only 11 points ahead of Red Bull.

Saturday in Singapore was a bad day at the office for McLaren.

Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris were heading for fourth and fifth places in the sprint when Norris made a dive down the inside of his team-mate at Turn Five on the final lap.

This is not a common overtaking spot and from a McLaren point of view it was a move with no reward, only risk.

The move might have made sense if it had come earlier in the race and enabled Norris to challenge Leclerc, struggling in front of them, for third.

But on the last lap, Norris was not going to have a go at Leclerc even if he had got through - the only remaining overtaking place was at the end of the following straight into Turn Seven.

If the McLaren drivers swapped places, it would make no difference to the team in terms of a collective points haul, but if it went wrong, the cost could be high.

And so it did. Norris was in a position to make a legitimate move, but they came together, pirouetted in tandem, Piastri into the barriers and out of the race and Norris slipping down to eighth. Nine points had become one.

The stewards took no action, feeling that "both drivers had contributed to the incident".

Piastri had explained in the hearing that he did not expect Norris to try a move there, and attempted to leave space when he saw him.

Norris argued that his his car was in a position that, according to the rules, entitled him to make an overtaking attempt, so expected to be left space and had braked and gone over the kerb when he realised he was not going to get as much as he expected.

He said: "There are two sides, one is what the stewards say and that's a fair reasoning, no-one's to blame. But I did apologise because it was still me attacking, as I had the right to do. If I just sat there and was boring like I should be, nothing would have happened. So really it's still my fault but I deserved to go for the space and I still believe I had the right for it."

Norris added: "As you probably expect, no-one's very happy. I'm not happy, Oscar isn't happy. None of us wanted it to go that way. There was things both of us could have done better and, yeah, we spoke about it and we moved on."

Team principal Andrea Stella is a measured man who chooses his words carefully, but his displeasure was clear.

"It was a very long, tiring and challenging day," he said. "Very simply, it is unacceptable that two McLarens ever come together on track. This is a fundamental principle of how we go racing, and something both drivers are very well aware of.

"As always, we discuss these incidents as a team in a constructive and productive way as there is always something to learn and take forward to emerge stronger. These are not conversations we need to have in public, but we have reminded our drivers that the interests of the team must always come first, and that did not happen today."

The context for the collision comes after two seasons where Norris and Piastri have had a number of incidents that created tensions, especially in their title battle last season. Lessons do not appear to have been learned in the way Stella might have expected.

Stella said he was "disappointed" more than anything, pointing out that this was far from the first conversation he had had with the drivers on the need to put the team's interests first.

"We as a team need to reflect as to how we make sure that these situations do not happen any more," he said.

"It is serious. It is serious because the damage for the team is material. We are in a close fight in the championship.

"We had the ambition to challenge Ferrari and this is a problem in the challenge for the second position, and we have an ambition to finish ahead of Red Bull, and this is a problem to finish ahead of Red Bull.

"And it is also serious because we come from a few seasons in which we have reflected together, team and drivers, as to how we approach racing together and how we make sure that the interest of the team is protected.

"It is serious, but at the same time we approach it with a very constructive mindset because there is only one outcome, that the team will be more united and the team will be stronger in the way we pursue our quest, which is the drivers' and the team's quest, together."