Max Verstappen takes F1 Singapore GP pole from Leclerc after sprint win

Max Verstappen took pole position for the Singapore Grand Prix, beating the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc into second in a close fight on the streets of the Marina Bay circuit.

The championship leader, Kimi Antonelli, was fourth for Mercedes, a decent return after he has struggled with the car over the weekend and given his teammate and title rival, George Russell, will start from the back of the grid on Sunday.

Verstappen was in fine form to take pole having already scored a victory in the sprint race earlier in the day, with the Red Bull looking hugely impressive. Lewis Hamilton was third for Ferrari, with Lando Norris in fifth for McLaren.

Despite Russell taking sixth place on track he will be opening at the back of the field because of the penalties applied for taking a new engine, one more than the permitted allocation. He had no control over the reliability issues that led to his engine failing at the last round in Malaysia but his weekend was compromised hugely after he made an error in the sprint race.

He had taken to the front, passing Verstappen into the first corner, but put his wheels on to the white lines at the final corner at the end of the opening lap. In the wet conditions he lost the rear, spun and went into the barriers, out of the race and the team had to work fast to repair the car before qualifying.

Russell held his hands up for the mistake that played into Antonelli’s hands. “Miscalculation,” he said. “Came through the corner had more battery deployment than I thought, pushed me a little bit wider than I hoped and went on to the white line. Silly mistake. Big consequences.”

After Russell’s engine failure in Malaysia, Antonelli’s lead over his teammate was 84 points, a gap the Italian extended to 89 after the sprint.

In qualifying on the opening quick laps in Q3, Verstappen set the pace with 1min 31.373sec. An impressive benchmark at his first attempt, throwing himself into the lap, on the absolute edge of the tight street circuit where he found the limit with precision. Hamilton chased him hard to the line, a tenth back, setting up a showdown.

For the final runs, however, Hamilton could not improve, while Leclerc went quicker and edged into second place. No one could challenge Verstappen and he retained the top spot for pole by five-hundredths from Leclerc.

It is another demonstration of how the tranche of recent upgrades have improved the Red Bull. Verstappen took his first pole and win of the season in Malaysia and has followed it with pole for the sprint, the win and a further pole for the GP, with a control that proves how much more comfortable he is with the car and able to exploit it.

His 50th career pole is his first in Singapore, a track where he has yet to win a GP, one of only two, alongside the Madring, on the current calendar where he has yet to take victory.

Earlier in the day, Verstappen won the sprint, which had been delayed because of heavy rain, with complete control from the front once he had inherited the lead after Russell’s crash. He had enough pace to comfortably see off Hamilton in second who had made a superb start to move from sixth to third off the line. It was very much a processional affair, with overtaking all but impossible as drivers managed their tyres to the flag.

The short form dash was enlivened by late drama when Norris made a move on his teammate, Oscar Piastri, on the final lap. The pair clashed, taking the Australian out and dropping Norris to eighth, to the consternation of his McLaren team.

That moved Antonelli up from sixth to fourth, another indication that everything is going the Italian’s way, even when he is just keeping his head down and grinding out a result.

The street circuit track was holding a sprint for the first time as F1 seeks to enliven some of the more processional circuits, including having Monaco host a sprint next season. However, it was not welcomed with any enthusiasm by the drivers.

“If it was dry that would probably have been the most boring race to have watched,” said Hamilton. An opinion echoed by Leclerc. “I don’t think it makes sense to have any sprint races on city tracks in general. Here or Monaco, I don’t think it adds anything to the weekend.”