Max Verstappen claimed pole for the Singapore sprint, edging out George Russell in a session overshadowed by a settings problem and a timing glitch in the F1 system. The issue, which affected all cars but hit some drivers harder depending on when they ran, involved overtake mode being switched on and off within 28 seconds after a red flag caused by a crash for Sergio Perez's Cadillac.
Carlos Sainz was knocked out in the first session after what he called a "really poor lap," but argued that half the cars had a quicker engine than the others. He said he did not think he would have progressed even without the problem. Arvid Lindblad and Lance Stroll were also eliminated in the first session. Fernando Alonso was affected too but progressed, eventually qualifying 15th.
The FIA said the problem stemmed from a human error in race control, acknowledging that it affected certain cars based on the timing of their runs. The second and third sprint qualifying periods were not affected.
Verstappen said he had not believed pole was possible, calling it a welcome sign after his dominant win in Malaysia. Russell's performance also raised doubts about Mercedes' recent upgrade, which team boss Toto Wolff had said appeared to set the team back. Teammate Kimi Antonelli finished 0.573 seconds behind Russell, and Russell said the stopwatch had not been kind to the upgrade yet.
Source: BBC Sport · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing