Max Verstappen claimed his first Singapore Grand Prix pole position with a lap of 1:31.373 at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, edging Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc by 0.054 seconds while Lewis Hamilton qualified third in a tightly contested session.
Verstappen’s decisive lap came on his opening Q3 attempt, a time that neither he nor his rivals could better on their final runs. Leclerc improved late to post 1:31.427 and secure the front row, but fell just short of denying Verstappen a second pole of the Singapore weekend after the Red Bull driver had also topped Sprint Qualifying.
Hamilton, who had set the pace throughout Q1 and Q2, crossed the line in 1:31.496 in Q3, leaving him 0.123 seconds off pole. Kimi Antonelli was fourth for Mercedes at 1:31.562, followed by Lando Norris fifth and George Russell sixth. Russell faces a grid penalty following an engine change. Oscar Piastri qualified seventh after improving by more than three tenths on his final run, with Pierre Gasly eighth, Liam Lawson ninth, and Arvid Lindblad rounding out the top 10.
The session was not without incident. Haas driver Esteban Ocon locked up at Turn 13 in Q1 and reported a braking problem before reversing back onto the circuit. Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll encountered trouble at Turn 7 and was eliminated in Q1 alongside teammate Fernando Alonso, who finished 17th.
Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar endured a difficult session after retiring from the Sprint earlier in the day. The Frenchman ran deep in Q1, reported that his engine had switched off, and was unable to set a representative lap time, leaving him last in the classification without a recorded time.
In Q2, Hamilton set the benchmark at 1:31.529 before Verstappen closed to within 0.110 seconds with a 1:31.639. Nico Hülkenberg, who had shown competitive pace in the Sprint, was eliminated in 11th after his final-run improvement proved insufficient. Gasly secured progression with a substantial gain on his last attempt, advancing alongside both Racing Bulls drivers.
Conditions remained humid throughout qualifying, contributing to the challenges faced by several drivers across all three segments.