Carlos Sainz stuns on Pole as Red Bull nightmare continues

Carlos Sainz will lineup from pole position for the second race in a row after stunning in a chaotic Singapore Grand Prix qualifying session, with both Red Bulls failing to make Q3 as their nightmare weekend continues.

Qualifying 1:

With Red Bull’s dominance seemingly having taken a hit this weekend, the possibility for a mixed-up top ten had reached a season-high likeliness as the lights turned green in the pitlane for Q1.  

The Williams of Logan Sargeant led the queue out onto the Marina Bay Street Circuit to start their Singapore Grand Prix qualifying campaigns. 

Lando Norris immediately whipped his MCL60 into shape, holding his own by a few milliseconds as he headed the Red Bull duo through the lap with a time of 1:32.556. 

Once the first bout of cars had laid out a banker lap, it was Charles Leclerc who found himself in P1 by just 33 milliseconds from the #4.

With 12 minutes remaining in Q1, George Russell set off on his first flying lap ahead of his teammate.

Russell put in an impressive Q1 time to jump to the top of the timing sheets by just 45 milliseconds with a time of 1:32.478.

During Lance Stroll’s first attempt, the Aston Martin driver was impeded by Sargeant in an incident that was noted by Race Control, with his race engineer reminding the Canadian to remain calm. 

At the 7-minute mark of the session, the elimination zone was occupied by both Williams, the Alfa Romeos and Stroll. 

Stroll’s teammate jumped to within the top ten with his first true time, ahead of Lewis Hamilton as a lull fell over the track with 5 minutes to go.

As the cars emerged from their garages to complete the final 3 minutes of Q1, the top three were separated by just 67 milliseconds, however, in the latter end of the field, the margins were of greater importance.

Stroll sitting in P16 found his Aston Martin just over a tenth from Nico Hulkenberg, the driver at risk in P15 who had been assured by his race engineer that the track evolution would aid him in securing a place in Q2.

Yuki Tsunoda was the first to take the chequered flag, skyrocketing to the top of the timing sheets with a time of 1:31.991 with Liam Lawson joining him in the top ten.

As the first half of the drivers rolled across the line, they failed to match the AlphaTauri, however, for the rest, their chance at a Q2 appearance disappeared as a red flag was called on the session.

Stroll had a huge shunt at the final corner after riding the kerbs and losing control of his Aston Martin as he rounded Turn 19. 

Lance Stroll’s Singapore GP qualifying session came to a late end after a heavy crash at the final corner destroyed his AMR23. Image: Andy Hone/LAT Images.

The red flag was immediately called with the Aston Martin lying battered in the middle of the start/finish straight, sidepod torn apart, fluid running on the track and a wheel ripped off by the barriers.

Replays also showed significant head contact with the headrests as the car rebounded out of its frontal contact with the wall, however, Stroll was on the radio to confirm he was okay as he then headed to the medical centre for a mandatory check-up.

Aside from the incident, the final run was a huge talking point for race control, with the stewards investigating multiple occurrences of impeding between turns 16-19 between multiple drivers. 

Max Verstappen will be adding to the stewards’ list of investigations, being looked at for impeding in the pitlane while trying to build a gap during the session.

As for the results of the first session, Oscar Piastri’s final run was cut short by the red flag, seeing him have a disappointingly early exit from Qualifying in P18. 

Joining the Australian were Valtteri Bottas, Logan Sargeant, Zhou Guanyu and the wounded Aston Martin in P20.

Qualifying 2:

There was an obvious delay to the start of Q2 due to the incident, forcing drivers to wait in their hot cars in the garages for a significant amount of time before the lights went green. 

The two Ferraris headed out into the queue on used tyres, with the rest running new sets of soft  tyres for the 15-minute dash for a spot in the top ten shootout. 

Sergio Perez led the way out onto the track, guiding Verstappen and Norris through their outlaps.

The Red Bulls swapped order, with Verstappen being the first to set a time on the board, a 1:32.307 that fell flat compared to the five drivers ahead of him at the 10-minute mark.

Sainz, Norris and Leclerc occupied the top three times before Fernando Alonso demoted the lot of them, jumping to P1 with a time of 1:31.835.

Kevin Magnussen secured himself a solid time on his first lap, ahead of the Alpines and the messy Red Bulls in P5.

The Mercedes drivers were running an effective program which saw them emerge a lap behind the rest of their competitors.

On his first attempt, Russell claimed the quickest time, just 0.092 seconds ahead of Alonso, with Hamilton trailing behind in P5. 

Tsunoda brought attention to an impeding incident involving himself and Verstappen as he was audibly frustrated on the radio.

The incident was noted by the stewards, making it Verstappen’s second investigation of the evening and a likely penalty.

Following a mid-Q2 lull, the drivers returned to the track with 4 minutes on the clock, Mercedes again waiting an additional minute before they made their appearance. 

Red Bull’s nightmare weekend continues as both drivers failed to advance to Q3 in Singapore. Image: Andy Hone/LAT Images.

On his last run, Verstappen was down three-tenths in the first sector after sliding through Turn 3, only improving to very at-risk P10.

His teammate didn’t have much other luck either, fully spinning it at the same corner and ruining his final run.

Perez was left down in the elimination zone, soon to be joined by Verstappen as Liam Lawson crossed the line to take his first Q3 appearance in Formula 1, demoting the very angry championship leader to P11.

Also impressive were the Haas drivers who both managed to make it through to the top ten shootout for the first time since Austria 2022.

Carlos Sainz ended the session with the quickest time, while his teammate was noted by Race Control for not slowing under yellow flags, however, there was no further investigation.

Knocked out in Q2 were Max Verstappen, Pierre Gasly, Sergio Perez, Alex Albon and Yuki Tsunoda.

Qualifying 3:

Alonso made his way to the front of the pack to be the first to lay out a time in his campaign for pole position, leading Hulkenberg, Norris and Sainz. 

However, after everybody’s solid first flying laps, it was the Italian GP poleman who found himself on top, clear of his teammate in P2 by over two and a half tenths.

Drivers returned to their garages, waiting until the 4-minute mark before they emerged for their final attempts at pole position.

Mercedes once again held back, risking the chance of a red flag for better track evolution.

Sainz trailed Alonso, trying to overtake his veteran compatriot on the final outlap, however, to no avail.

As Sainz took off for his last-ditch attempt at maintaining the top spot, he secured the fastest first sector with an opening time of 26.717s in a direct fight with Norris and Leclerc.

Lando Norris found his heavily upgraded McLaren right in the fight for Pole with Ferrari in Q3. Image: Andy Hone/LAT Images.

The Spaniard was slightly down in the middle sector in comparison to the McLaren, however, pulled it all together to improve on his fastest time, securing his second pole position in a row and out-qualifying his teammate for the third race in a row. 

It was a momentary Ferrari front-row lockout before George Russell stormed home to split the two, finishing just 72 milliseconds behind Sainz’s time of 1:30.984.

Charles Leclerc found himself just 7 milliseconds behind Russell, a bittersweet second-row start for the Monegasque driver.

Joining Leclerc on the second row in tomorrow’s Singapore Grand Prix will be Lando Norris. 

Row 3 is occupied by Lewis Hamilton, continuing his run of Top 5 starts in Singapore, along with a very deserving Kevin Magnussen in P6.

Behind them will be Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon, with Nico Hulkenberg and Liam Lawson rounding out the top ten for an exciting Singapore Grand Prix.

Carlos Sainz will lead the grid off the line from the Singapore Grand Prix at 10:00 PM on Sunday for what is set to be an exciting race under the floodlights of the Marina Bay Street Circuit.

Qualifying Results:

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