The FIA has confirmed a second error during sprint qualifying for the Singapore GP, separate from a glitch in the timing and scoring system that left some drivers' times undisplayed. The session was first halted by a red flag when Sergio Perez hit the barrier at Turn 5, then extracted his car and returned to the pits, losing his damaged front wing in the process. Race control paused proceedings while the debris was cleared.
Once the session resumed, two anomalies emerged: some lap times failed to register, and several drivers reported less power than expected. Many were told the power issue was the FIA's responsibility, leading them to suspect a software bug similar to the one that affected last weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia. Carlos Sainz, eliminated in SQ1, said half the cars completed their lap with an engine half a second quicker than the others. "There was another software issue this time around and we were on the bad end of it," he said, questioning why the sport keeps handling problems differently depending on who is out in Q1.
The governing body has clarified that the problem was not software but human error in Race Control involving the enabling of Overtake Mode, which provides an extra half-megajoule of energy. The FIA said the mode was unavailable after the red flag in SQ1 and was only activated for 27 seconds after the restart before being switched off again. This affected lap times and tyre preparation on out-laps for certain cars, depending on the timing of their run.
The FIA said the second and third sprint qualifying sessions were not affected. The incident follows the chaotic scenes at the Bahrain Grand Prix, where the race was paused after a single formation lap as cars lost electrical power in wet conditions. Kimi Antonelli, Charles Leclerc, and both Aston Martin drivers were also understood to have been affected in Singapore.
Source: Autosport F1 News · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing