Norris takes Singapore pole in interrupted qualifying
McLaren’s Lando Norris did what was expected and took pole position for the Singaporean Grand Prix, a track which is notorious for its difficulty to overtake on. Max Verstappen was second fastest as the Mercedes duo will start the race from the second row on the grid.
As Carlos Sainz opted for a slow first timed lap to warm up his tyres gradually, the first lap that mattered was that of his Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc, topping the Alpines and Sauber cars.
The McLaren duo meanwhile also ventured out on track with Norris going faster than Leclerc on his first timed lap. Australian Piastri ended up in third, a tenth slower than what Leclerc managed. Sainz then slotted in just behind the Australian.
Next up were the Mercedes with Hamilton going 5th fastest, less than a tenth quicker than Albon in the Williams and George Russell.
A minute later Verstappen slotted into third place with times again very very close. Hulkenberg nearly matched Verstappen and jumped to 5th with 6 minutes left on the clock. Alonso also did well and secured 7th moments later.
Three minutes later pretty much everybody went out again with Albon first signalling massive improvements as he jumped to the top of the timing sheet. Norris and Piastri though had none of it and quickly took first and second with Norris notably improving on Albon’s time by more than 6 tenths of a second. Verstappen later showed similar improvement to split the McLarens.
As the session drew to a close, Ricciardo was ousted by an improvement by Ocon. Stroll failed to improve in the final minute and was therefore also out. They were joined by Gasly and the two Stake Sauber cars.
When the second part of qualifying kicked off, Sergio Perez the first to leave his box followed by Verstappen,. Norris, the Haas cars and the Williams duo. For Verstappen it was a bit of a useless outing as he went wide on the exit of the final corner and saw his timed lap deleted from the timing board.
Perez has meanwhile set the fastest time but he was very quickly demoted by both McLarens, both Mercedes, both Ferraris, as well as Hulkenberg and Tsunoda.
After returning to the pits, Verstappen was quick to come out again, trying to make use of a quiet track to recover from his earlier mishap. Following a personal best first sector the Dutchman had an impressive middle sector and eventually went fastest, 0.249s ahead of Hamilton and slightly more than three tenths quicker than Norris.
Obviously that secured all the big guns going through bar Sergio Perez. Alonso and Tsunoda both completed solid laps to move up into 9th and 10th but Perez was unable to do a similar feat, instead having to content himself with 13th in today’s qualifying. That’s slower than the two Williams while Albon was actually disappointed with his result.
The battle for pole kicked off with Hulkenberg and Piastri starting their flying laps first. Piastri was obviously the faster of the two with Hulkenberg about a second behind. Sainz on the other hand was getting ready to start his flying lap so hit the throttle and adjusted some dials in the run to the final corner but then lost control with tyres that weren’t up to temperature, sending him backwards into the barriers.
Verstappen meanwhile passed the incident under yellows and went fastest but soon got his time deleted due to that safety hazard. At the same time the session was stopped as Sainz went off into the pits and out of qualifying.
8 minutes and 4 seconds were left on the clock. When the session was restarted everybody went out on track knowing it would be money time. Norris was out first and completed his flyer to take the top of the timing sheet with a blistering final sector.
Leclerc had a disappointing result and ended up behind Hulkenberg as the German once again impressed. Verstappen did well and finished in second ahead of the two Mercedes.
That means the favourite is on pole, the Championship leader will start from second and the Mercedes duo will be looking to be in the mix for Sunday’s big points.
