The final session before the Singapore Grand Prix commenced under the track lights on Saturday evening. As the season end draws closer, McLaren wants to seal their win as constructors’ champions. Will qualifying help so they can do it this weekend?
Q1 – Hamilton Ahead
Q1 started under the floodlights of the Marina Bay Circuit with both Alpines leading the field onto the track. Liam Lawson later emerged with a fixed car following his crash in FP3, thanks to swift work from his Racing Bulls mechanics!
After Hamilton had to abort his initial lap for going wide, he took second place on his next attempt at a flying lap. Bearman came in quickly to replace him as he sent his Haas flying into 2nd.
With two minutes to go until the end of Q1, all drivers came back out for the final push. Hamilton went fastest, ahead of Russell and Norris, before Gasly stopped on track, causing yellow flags just as the chequered flag came out.
Out:
16th – Bortoleto
17th – Stroll
18th – Colapinto
19th – Ocon
20th – Gasly
Q2 – Danger for Leclerc
Before this session began, Bortoleto, Hulkenberg, Tsunoda, Russell and Stroll had all been noted for yellow flag infringements at the end of Q1. This will be investigated after the session.
After a delayed start to Q2, the remaining 15 drivers took to the track to fight for position in Q3. Verstappen set the first timed lap of the session, and with 9 minutes to go, Piastri came up behind him in second.
Leclerc hit the wall at the exit of Turn 14, leaving a few marks and ruining his lap. He found himself down in 13th. 2 minutes to go in Q2, and Russell put his car on provisional pole.
Verstappen ends the session 0.010s behind Russell. Norris managed to get his car up to 4th whilst Piastri finished in 5th.
Fortunately for Leclerc, he managed to redeem himself and finished in 6th. He went through to Q3.
Out:
11th – Hulkenberg
12th – Albon
13th – Sainz
14th – Lawson
15th – Tsunoda
Q3 – Rapid Russell
Green flag for the final session of qualifying. This was crucial for McLaren if they wanted any advantage for tomorrow’s race. All of the front-runners left the pit lane on fresh tyres, except for Leclerc, Alonso, and Bearman, who are on used tyres.
Russell immediately put in the quickest lap despite hitting the wall. Norris followed, but his lap was nearly half a second slower than Russell’s.
Six minutes to go, and Verstappen went second fastest, closely followed by Piastri in 3rd. Norris started his next flying lap but could not match the time of the top three; he stayed in fifth place.
The end of the session saw Russell set a whopping time of 1:29.158. Verstappen finished 2nd, only a 0.182s gap separating them. Piastri took 3rd place, followed by Antonelli in 4th and Norris in 5th.