Red Bull's Verstappen fastest in Singapore to claim 50th career pole
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SINGAPORE: Red Bull's Max Verstappen claimed the 50th pole position of his career when he went fastest in qualifying under the lights at the Singapore Grand Prix on Saturday (Oct 10), repeating his heroics from the sprint qualifying session a day earlier.
Verstappen clocked one minute 31.373 seconds at the Marina Bay Street Circuit and will have Ferrari's Charles Leclerc alongside him on the front row, with the Monegasque driver just 0.054 seconds slower than the four-time champion.
Leclerc's teammate Lewis Hamilton was third fastest and championship leader Kimi Antonelli was fourth quickest for Mercedes.
"The margins are very close between us throughout all of qualifying, so of course, very happy to be on pole because this is the one that I wanted," Verstappen said ahead of his 250th race.
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"The car has been pretty strong all weekend. Of course, I always think that you can be better, but it was enough for pole, so very happy with that."
Verstappen, who won a chaotic sprint in wet conditions earlier on Saturday, topped the timesheets despite gearbox issues in Q2.
Leclerc had struggled in Q1 and Q2 but found his groove in Q3 to put Ferrari on the front row right at the end of the session.
"Let's say that the good lap was on the right lap at the end, but I had a lot of struggles during this qualifying," Leclerc said.
"I had some weird things going on with the brakes, car pulling a bit under braking, which is not so nice on a track like here.
"But then in Q3, the lap was okay. I did some mistakes. I think there was a potential to be on pole today, but Max just did a better job."
With celebrity girlfriend Kim Kardashian watching on from the Ferrari garage, Hamilton topped Q1 and Q2 at a circuit where he has four victories, but the Briton could not reproduce his form in Q3.
"There's a real fine line with our car where it's over the edge or under the limit and finding that sweet spot is very, very difficult," said seven-times world champion Hamilton.
Earlier, Verstappen tasted victory in Singapore for the first time as the polesitter won a chaotic sprint after the start was delayed by over 30 minutes due to heavy rain while nine cars retired, a record for sprint races.
The victory was the first of any kind for the Dutchman in Singapore as he took the chequered flag ahead of Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.
"I want to win tomorrow. I don't see this as a win in terms of actually winning a Grand Prix," Verstappen said.
Mercedes' championship leader Kimi Antonelli was gifted fourth place after the two McLarens collided on the final lap while his teammate George Russell crashed out of the lead on lap one.
The race was the first Formula 1 sprint race to be held in Singapore.
Verstappen had kept his pole position after escaping a penalty for overtaking under a yellow flag on Friday but the Dutchman made a slow start as Russell stormed ahead and Hamilton swiftly moved up from sixth to third.
Russell's sprint ended on the last turn of lap one when his rear tyre went over the kerb and he spun into the wall to bring the safety car out.
"The start was horrendous again, so that's definitely something that we need to improve on because if you have something like that tomorrow, that's your race over if nothing crazy happens," Verstappen added.
"After that, you just want to keep it calm and under control because you know that you can't pass around here."
"SILLY MISTAKE" FOR RUSSELL
Russell said a miscalculation caused him to spin out at the last corner.
"I came through the corner, had more battery deployment than I thought. Pushed me a little bit wider than I hoped and then I just went on the white line," Russell said.
"Yeah, silly mistake. Big, big consequences."
The carnage continued when Lance Stroll and Sergio Perez retired after they collided and Red Bull's Isack Hadjar was asked to stop his car due to a technical issue.
The safety car remained on track after Franco Colapinto's Alpine also came to a standstill and they did not resume racing until lap seven.
Verstappen led from the Ferraris of Hamilton and Leclerc while the McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris were in the top five ahead of Antonelli.
MCLARENS COLLIDE ON FINAL LAP
McLaren's hopes of a podium vanished, however, when reigning champion Norris nudged into Piastri and the two cars spun out, allowing Antonelli to move up to fourth place and stretch his championship lead over Russell to 89 points.
"I checked in my mirrors and I saw red lights of the back of the cars of the McLarens. So I knew that something happened," Leclerc said.
The qualifying session for Sunday's race was delayed due to the rain.
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