Verstappen takes Singapore sprint pole at Marina Bay as FIA overtake mode error disrupts qualifying

Verstappen seals sprint pole under the lights

Max Verstappen claimed pole position for Saturday's sprint race at the Singapore Grand Prix, producing a 1:31.156 in the closing stages of a chaotic Friday qualifying session at Marina Bay, as reported by GRANDE PRÊMIO. Formula1.com confirmed the Red Bull driver was on top form under the lights, sealing pole for the Sprint. According to ESPN, it was Verstappen's first pole under the lights at the Marina Bay circuit, secured with minutes to spare, and he finished 0.120 seconds ahead of Mercedes' George Russell. ¹³⁴

The BBC's F1 correspondent Andrew Benson reported from Singapore that Verstappen, fresh from his and Red Bull's first victory of the season in Malaysia the previous weekend, was 0.12 seconds quicker than Russell, with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc third. Verstappen sat in the garage for a large part of the final session and said on team radio that the car felt "a lot nicer", ESPN noted. GRANDE PRÊMIO recorded Russell on 1:31.276 and Leclerc on 1:31.399 after the Ferrari driver had twice held provisional pole. ²³⁴

Oscar Piastri beat his McLaren teammate Lando Norris to fourth, with Hamilton sixth after going early in the final segment, per BBC Sport. Liam Lawson took eighth for Racing Bulls, Isack Hadjar ninth and Pierre Gasly tenth, with the BBC listing lap times deleted for Hadjar and Gasly. Verstappen said afterwards he had not believed pole was possible: "We have some difficulties with the car in ride, as we know... I did not expect this but you take it, I'm happy for sure. Qualifying tomorrow is still the main goal," he told the BBC. ²⁵

Despite winning at 26 different circuits, Verstappen has never won a Grand Prix at Marina Bay, GRANDE PRÊMIO noted, giving the pole an added significance as he seeks an elusive Singapore victory. ESPN reported Saturday's sprint will be the final one of the season. ³⁴

FIA admits overtake mode error amid timing failure

The session was disrupted twice. Sergio Perez struck the barriers at Turn 4 in SQ1, damaging his Cadillac's front wing, forcing a red flag, GRANDE PRÊMIO reported; the Mexican reversed away and returned to the pit lane, but debris left several drivers with limited running. A subsequent failure in the FIA's timing systems then delayed SQ2, with the governing body announcing that "[the] start of SQ2 will be delayed due to an issue with timing systems, some lap times had not been registered", before confirming the timings were considered correct and resuming the session at 22:11 local time, GRANDE PRÊMIO detailed. ⁴

The BBC reported further glitches with engine settings provided by the FIA, five days after a software bug reduced cars to crawling speed during wet formation laps in Malaysia. The settings issue was combined with the timing glitch that delayed the start of second qualifying, though the BBC noted it did not affect the order. ²⁵

In a statement, the FIA acknowledged "a human error in race control unrelated to the timing issue" during the first period of sprint qualifying, which meant overtake mode was not available after the red-flag period. When it became apparent overtake mode was not active after the restart, it was activated for a period of 27 seconds before being deactivated again. The FIA acknowledged the error had an impact on the performance of certain cars depending on the timing of their runs, and said the second and third periods were not affected, as quoted by BBC Sport. ⁵

Williams driver Carlos Sainz, knocked out last after what the BBC described as a "really poor lap", complained that "half the cars did the lap with half a second quicker engine than the others", saying the FIA had again not decided to do sporting equity. Racing Bulls' Arvid Lindblad was also affected and eliminated in the first segment, per the BBC's report. ⁵

Separately, ESPN reported Verstappen is under investigation by the stewards for passing Lewis Hamilton through a yellow flag zone in SQ1, with the FIA noting the incident for investigation after the session, according to GRANDE PRÊMIO. ³⁴

Mercedes split package as Antonelli struggles

Mercedes ran two aerodynamic specifications in Singapore in an attempt to understand the upgrade introduced in Malaysia, with Russell reverting to the older W17 package and championship leader Kimi Antonelli initially retaining the updated configuration, GRANDE PRÊMIO reported. Before sprint qualifying, Mercedes removed the new front wing from Antonelli's car and returned that component to the previous specification, the same outlet detailed. Russell topped the sole Friday practice session with a 1:32.274. ⁴

BBC Sport reported Antonelli, using the upgrade that underperformed in Malaysia, could manage only seventh, finishing 0.573 seconds behind Russell. Team boss Toto Wolff said before sprint qualifying: "The new car seems to be a little more tricky to drive. Not saying it's necessarily slower, because there will be goodness in it, but maybe we haven't just found a way of putting it all together and tuning it. The older car is a bit more stable, grippy, but that is really just one data point." ²⁵

Antonelli told the BBC: "Already FP1 I was struggling and there is still a lot to understand about this package. Really the car is very difficult, very unpredictable... It's going to be a difficult weekend unless we can pull something out tomorrow." Russell said: "As a team there is still nothing telling us it isn't working but it's all driven by the stopwatch and, yeah, the stopwatch hasn't been great for the upgrade yet. Maybe tomorrow's a different day." ESPN noted Antonelli leads the championship by 84 points going into the weekend. ³⁵

GRANDE PRÊMIO added that Russell's front-row start is valuable because his engine penalty applies to Sunday's Grand Prix rather than Saturday's sprint, giving him an opportunity to score points in the shorter race as he attempts to reduce Antonelli's 84-point championship advantage. Ferrari's Leclerc said the team had been "losing a little bit of our raw performance" over the past three or four races, while Hamilton blamed a different run plan of his own choosing and a "very oversteery" car, both quoted by the BBC. ²⁴⁵

What comes next at Marina Bay

The 2026 Singapore Grand Prix runs from October 9 to 11 at Marina Bay, featuring a sprint weekend with five Formula 1 sessions, GRANDE PRÊMIO detailed. For Australian viewers, the sprint is scheduled for 20:00 AEDT on Saturday, October 10, with Grand Prix qualifying at midnight AEDT into Sunday and the Grand Prix itself at 23:00 AEDT on Sunday, October 11, according to the outlet's schedule listing, which cites Sydney/Melbourne time. ⁴

The complete top-ten classification for sprint qualifying, as listed by BBC Sport and GRANDE PRÊMIO, reads: Verstappen 1:31.156; Russell +0.120; Leclerc +0.243; Piastri +0.298; Norris +0.431; Hamilton +0.546; Antonelli +0.693; Lawson +1.185; Hadjar (lap time deleted); Gasly (lap time deleted). Lower down, Franco Colapinto qualified 11th, Gabriel Bortoleto 14th, Perez 20th and Sainz 22nd, per GRANDE PRÊMIO's full results. ⁴⁵