Russell claims stunning Singapore pole

With a stunning pole position at the Grand Prix of Singapore, Mercedes’ George Russell stole the show from the title contenders.

Max Verstappen, from Red Bull, was Red Bull’s fastest man, who set up Russell’s first pole since the Canadian Grand Prix in June, which he won.

Oscar Piastri, McLaren’s championship leader, came in third place behind Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli, with Lando Norris, his teammate, and title challenger, Lando Norris, fifth.

Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, placed sixth and seventh.

It was Mercedes’ first pole position in Singapore since Hamilton’s famous lap in 2018, and Russell gatecrashed Norris and Piastri’s fight.

Before the weekend, it was discussed whether Verstappen could defeat McLaren to claim a third straight victory.

Verstappen does win the race, but Russell came out on top with a strong chance to improve his title defense, even though Verstappen does so in front of both McLarens.

Verstappen and Piastri both struggled to improve in the final sector, and the Dutchman attributed Norris’ slow advance to him.

Verstappen was attempting to finish his lap when Norris was on the inside entering the pits on the way to the final corner.

You can thank your mate for that, according to his engineer Gianpiero Lambiase, who made reference to Verstappen and Norris’ friendship.

Verstappen, who expressed his disappointment in the immediate aftermath of qualifying, said: “I think it would have been close for pole.”

The four-time champion later stated that “you need every kind of clean air that you can have on a Q3 lap, especially when braking and everything else is in full swing.” And that contributed a little to my downforce. So I continued on without a delay.

By the time the official news conference was finished, he had calmed down and said to BBC Sport, “Of course these things happen; I just hope it wasn’t deliberate.”

When asked if Russell’s first encounter with the wall was a kiss or a hit, he responded, “A little more of a snog.”

You become a little tentative as you approach the corner when you’re doing a really strong lap and just touch the wall like that.

You simply don’t know whether your car has a puncture or whether it will just spin out on you. And it’s a very fast corner, which is all good in the end.

Piastri was 0.36secs off pole because he simply had the pace to compete.

He claimed that he and McLaren anticipated being able to compete front-to-front.

According to Piastri, “My first lap of Q3 felt reasonable.” It certainly didn’t feel 0.4 seconds off. The pace tonight just wasn’t what we expected, which surprised us a little bit. Going in, we were surprisingly confident.

However, Piastri’s performance in Baku marked his Australian return to form after a difficult race where he made a number of errors that led to his crash on the opening lap.

He has a good chance of extending his 25-point championship lead after two places ahead of Norris.

The Mercedes was considerably quicker than the Mercedes, according to Norris. You must do it on a track like this because I didn’t put it all together.

We must wait and see, they say. “There are still chances.”

For the first time since the British Grand Prix, Hamilton outqualified Leclerc, highlighting a recent improvement in form.

He claimed that Ferrari had managed the rest of the qualifying period in a bad way and was the fastest in the first session.

“The pace was there,” Hamilton remarked. Simply put, we didn’t optimize the sessions going forward in Q2.

“I feel much more at ease in the car, and I think I’ve been doing it all weekend.”

P6 is “not good,” he said. Although it was all about tire temp today, I believe we should have been a little bit ahead. Every week, I believe. From where we are right now, tomorrow will be difficult. Not very much can be done from this point.

1. George Russell (Mercedes)

2. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen

3. McLaren’s Oscar Piastri

4. (Mercedes) Kimi Antonelli

5. McLaren’s Lando Norris

6. Robert Hamilton (Ferrari)

7. (Ferrari) Charles Leclerc

8. The Racing Bulls (Isack Hadjar)

9. Has Has Oliver Bearman (Haas)