Max Verstappen will start Saturday's Singapore Grand Prix sprint race from pole position after a dominant lap around the streets of Marina Bay.
The Dutchman will share the front row with George Russell, who leapt ahead of Charles Leclerc with a fine late lap to bring a little bit of sunshine to what promises to be a bleak weekend for the Mercedes driver.
Leclerc will start third alongside Oscar Piastri, with the Australian's McLaren team-mate Lando Norris rounding out the top five – and Kimi Antonelli all the way down in seventh.
Earlier on, Sergio Perez brought out a red flag hit the wall just a couple of minutes into the session. That crash initially brought out double waved yellow flags around the area of the incident, with the red flag not coming out until Perez got going again with his front wing stuck under his car – with that wing disintegrating and leaving bits of Cadillac all over the track.
One thing to keep an eye on as the day continues: Verstappen is being investigated after the session for a potential yellow flag violation following Perez's crash.
There was some brief confusion as to which drivers were eliminated in SQ1 thanks to some gremlins in the timing systems, with race control delaying the start of SQ2 to get things back into working order.
In the end, Fernando Alonso made it through to SQ2 by a couple of tenths of a second – with Arvid Lindblad the first driver on the wrong side of the cut line.
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Singapore Grand Prix Sprint Qualifying Results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1:31.156 |
| 2 | George Russell | Mercedes | +0.120s |
| 3 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | +0.243s |
| 4 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | +0.298s |
| 5 | Lando Norris | McLaren | +0.431s |
| 6 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | +0.546s |
| 7 | Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | +0.693s |
| 8 | Liam Lawson | Racing Bulls | +1.185s |
| 9 | Isack Hadjar | Red Bull | TBC |
| 10 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | +2.163s |
| 11 | Franco Colapinto | Alpine | ELIMINATED IN SQ2 |
| 12 | Nico Hulkenberg | Audi | ELIMINATED IN SQ2 |
| 13 | Ollie Bearman | Haas | ELIMINATED IN SQ2 |
| 14 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Audi | ELIMINATED IN SQ2 |
| 15 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | ELIMINATED IN SQ2 |
| 16 | Esteban Ocon | Haas | ELIMINATED IN SQ2 |
| 17 | Arvid Lindblad | Racing Bulls | ELIMINATED IN SQ1 |
| 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | ELIMINATED IN SQ1 |
| 19 | Alex Albon | Williams | ELIMINATED IN SQ1 |
| 20 | Sergio Perez | Cadillac | ELIMINATED IN SQ1 |
| 21 | Valtteri Bottas | Cadillac | ELIMINATED IN SQ1 |
| 22 | Carlos Sainz | Williams | ELIMINATED IN SQ1 |
Changes to F1 qualifying in 2026
There are a couple of changes to the way qualifying works this year, not quite as sweeping as the new technical regulations.
Firstly we now have 22 cars on the grid, so instead of 5 cars exiting after SQ1 and SQ2, we will have 6 being eliminated. That still leaves 10 for the pole shootout in SQ3.
Unlike in grand prix qualifying, where Q3 now gets an extra minute and lasts for 13 rather than 12, sprint qualifying timings are unchanged (12 minutes for SQ1, 10 for SQ2, eight for SQ3).
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