Singapore GP Qualifying: Charles Leclerc storms to pole as Verstappen finishes eighth

Charles Leclerc storms to the pole of the Singapore Grand Prix, finishing ahead of Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, with the top 3 drivers separated by just 0.054s. The heavy downpour before Saturday’s events meant that the drivers ran the Q1 and Q2 sessions on intermediate tires. It wasn’t until Q3 when slicks proved to be the better option, and there was a dash by everyone in the session’s final minutes to try and put together a quick lap.

While Leclerc managed to beat everyone else, Max Verstappen looked poised to snatch pole position from him in his final run, only to be surprisingly called into the bits before he completed his timed lap. The decision caused Verstappen to direct expletive words toward the pits as he wasn’t aware of the reasons at the time why he was asked to abort his run. He would start the race in the 8th position.

Carlos Sainz finished P4 ahead of Fernando Alonso and Lando Norris. The latter surprisingly placed his car higher on the grid on Sunday as McLaren looked woefully off the pace in the practice sessions. Pierre Gasly qualified 7th and his Alpha Tauri teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, qualified 10th completing a successful session for the team. Kevin Magnussen again had a strong outing for Haas, qualifying P9.

Out in Q1

The session started with teams putting on intermediate tires as the track still had several wet patches. Williams’s drivers were the standard setters of slowest lap times. Alex Albon and Nicolas Latifi qualified for P19 and P20, respectively. Daniel Ricciardo and Estaban Ocon were the surprise exits in Q1. Ocon complained throughout the session that his brakes weren’t functioning correctly, and as a result, he couldn’t string together a clean lap. He finished behind Ricciardo, whose run of terrible form for McLaren continues. Valtteri Bottas was the last driver who missed Q2.

Out in Q2

Most of the Q2 session was again run on intermediate tires, but some drivers chanced a shot into Q3 using slick tires in the final minutes of Q2. This move, however, proved unsuccessful at the moment, and none of the drivers improved on their intermediate times. George Russell was the surprise exit in this session, qualifying 11th on the grid. The Mercedes driver later revealed that brake issues hampered him and consequently couldn’t improve his times in the later stages of the session. 

Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel qualified P12 and P14, respectively, as Aston Martin’s gamble to let them run on slick tires failed to materialize any potential gains for its drivers. Mick Schumacher qualified P13. Zhou Guanyu posted the slowest time in Q2 and finished P15.

What caused Verstappen to abort his pole lap?

In the final minutes of qualifying, Verstappen placed his car nicely behind everyone else to run his pole lap on the rubber-laid track. He posted purple sector times, and just as he was coming round the second to last corner, his team ordered him to immediately abort his run and box. Verstappen, livid with the decision, asked for reasons to come into the pits, which weren’t given at the time.

Later Red Bull’s team principal, Christian Horner, gave an interview to the press where he said that the reason to call Verstappen in was due to the team’s miscalculations when filling his car with fuel. The Dutch driver had enough fuel on board to complete his lap and return to the pits, but there wouldn’t be enough left in the tank for stewards to investigate.

Every driver must provide the FIA investigation team with 1 liter of fuel sample after the end of the session, and Verstappen completed his qualifying run and the in-lap. He wouldn’t have much left in the tank for the stewards to use for their checks. That would have resulted in a penalty for Verstappen, and the stewards would have demoted him to the lower part of the grid for the Sunday race, a risk that Red Bull didn’t want to take.

Verstappen’s quest to wrap the driver’s title race on Sunday took a severe dent as overtaking in Singapore is complex, and a win for Verstappen would prove to be a tall order. Also, his two direct title rivals, Leclerc and Perez, qualified at the front of the grid, which means there is a good chance that the fight for the world’s driver championship title will be decided in the next race in Japan instead of Singapore.

Qualifying Classification

Q2 Eliminations

Q1 Eliminations