Max Verstappen claimed pole position for the Singapore Grand Prix after also winning the sprint race earlier on Saturday, strengthening a dominant weekend for Red Bull at Marina Bay. Charles Leclerc qualified second for Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton was third and Kimi Antonelli took fourth for Mercedes.
Verstappen set the pace in Q3 with a lap of 1min 31.373sec and kept the top spot by five-hundredths of a second from Leclerc. Hamilton had been close early in the session but could not improve on his final run, while Leclerc went quicker to move ahead of the Ferrari driver. It was Verstappen’s 50th career pole and his first in Singapore, a circuit where he has not yet won a grand prix.
George Russell qualified sixth on track but will start Sunday from the back of the grid because of a penalty for taking a new engine, one more than the permitted allocation. His weekend was already damaged by a crash in the sprint race, when he went into the barriers after losing control in wet conditions on the opening lap.
The sprint had been delayed by heavy rain and was won by Verstappen after he inherited the lead when Russell crashed. Hamilton finished second and Antonelli moved up to fourth after a final-lap clash between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri took Piastri out and dropped Norris to eighth.