CARLOS SAINZ JR. ON POLE, CAN FERRARI CHALLENGE RACE WIN?

In a close-fought qualifying session at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, Carlos Sainz Jr. secured Pole position for the Singapore Grand Prix, beating George Russell and the second Ferrari of Charles Leclerc as championship leader Max Verstappen and Red Bull team-mate Sergio Pérez were out in Q2.

In the final runs of Q3, Sainz Jr. and Leclerc looked to have handed Ferrari a front-row lock-out, with Carlos 0.079s ahead of his team-mate but Russell, one of the last on track at the end of a dramatic session put in a lap to edge ahead of Leclerc by just seven thousandths of a second and take a first front-row place since the Australian Grand Prix.

Lando Norris took fourth place in the session, just under three tenths off the pace, with Lewis Hamilton fifth in the second Mercedes. Kevin Magnussen handed Haas a positive result with sixth place, while Fernando Alonso was seventh, after the Silverstone-based team had earlier seen Lance Stroll crash heavily at the end of Q1.

Esteban Ocon was eight for Alpine ahead of Nico Hülkenberg and the final top-10 spot was taken by AlphaTauri’s impressive Liam Lawson. There was no place in the top-10 shootout for either Red Bull, however.

Max Verstappen endured a difficult session, struggling for grip throughout and branding his RB19 shocking’ after Lawson beat him to P10 by the tiny margin of 0.007s.

The Dutchman’s misery was compounded by being placed under investigation for two separate incidents, first for apparently impeding in the pit lane during Q1 and then for a possible impending of AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda during the middle segment. (No grid penalties)

Verstappen’s team-mate Sergio Pérez was also ruled out at the end of Q2 with the Mexican driver spinning late in the session and qualifying in P13 behind Pierre Gasly. Alex Albon qualified 14th for Williams, while Tsunoda ended the night in 15the place.

Earlier at the end of Q1 Stroll brought out the red flags when he crashed heavily at the final corner while attempting to drag himself out of the drop zone as the track rapidly improved at the end of the session.

Tsunoda had hauled himself to an unlikely P1 with Pérez climbing to P2 ahead of Nico Hülkenberg and it looked like progress to the next segment would in part be defined by when drivers crossed the line.

That led to queuing at the end of prep laps and Race Officials indicated that the potentially dangerous traffic jam would also be looked at after the session. (No penalties)

Stroll's crash meant that Valtteri Bottas was knocked out in P16 ahead of Oscar Piastri, Logan Sargeant and Zhou Guanyu in P19 in the second Alfa. The unfortunate but uninjured Stroll qualified in 20th place.