Lando Norris beats F1 title rival Max Verstappen to Singapore pole
F1 title contenders Lando Norris and Max Verstappen will share the front row of the Singapore grid.
Lando Norris claimed pole position for the Singapore Grand Prix ahead of F1 title rival Max Verstappen.
The McLaren driver appeared the overwhelming favourite for pole after topping two of the three practice sessions, and backed that up with a stunning lap to outpace championship leader Verstappen by 0.203 seconds.
Lewis Hamilton produced a brilliant lap to put his Mercedes third, just 0.316s off pole, ahead of teammate George Russell in fourth.
Azerbaijan Grand Prix winner Oscar Piastri could not match the pace of his McLaren teammate as he took fifth, over four tenths adrift of Norris.
Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso finished seventh ahead of Yuki Tsunoda’s RB.
Meanwhile, Ferrari endured a dreadful qualifying. Charles Leclerc saw his lap time deleted and ended up ninth, while teammate Carlos Sainz caused a red flag when he crashed heavily at the final corner after suffering a “big snap”.
The Spaniard will start no higher than 10th, assuming he avoids any penalties for needing to change his engine, which took the brunt of the impact as he rear-ended the barriers.
The Williams pair of Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto narrowly missed out on the top-10 as they had to settle with 11th and 12th.
Meanwhile, Sergio Perez had a shocker and managed a time only good enough for 13th as he was knocked out in the second part of qualifying.
The returning Haas of Kevin Magnussen and Alpine’s Esteban Ocon also failed to advance to Q3 and will line up from 14th and 15th.
On what could be his final F1 outing, Daniel Ricciardo suffered a Q1 elimination in a disappointing 16th following RB’s competitive start to the weekend.
Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll was also dumped out in 17th, ahead of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and the Sauber pair of Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu.
