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Hear from the Team after Saturday in Singapore
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Hear from the Team after Saturday in Singapore
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Max makes it 50 with sizzling Singapore pole
Max Verstappen powered to back-to-back pole positions at the end of a tight and hotly contested qualifying session at Singapore’s Marina Bay Street Circuit that saw him beat Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc by just over five hundredths of a second. Max’s second pole of the season also sees him become just the fifth driver in F1 history to take 50 Grand Prix poles.
It was an altogether different story for Isack Hadjar, however, with a gearbox issue ending his session early in Q1. He is set to start the race from the back row of the grid for Sunday’s race.
Max made light work of the opening session and on scrubbed tyres the Dutchman putting in a single flyer of 1:33.241 that earned him progress to Q2 in eighth place.
Following Isack’s problems in the Sprint, the garage crew had done a superb job to complete a Power Unit change ahead of qualifying and Isack saluted the effort as he left the pit lane for his first run. However, midway through his opening flyer he suddenly went up the escape road at Turn 8. He rejoined immediately but soon reported “the engine is off”. He stopped on track on the approach to Turn 14 but he managed to effect a reset and headed back to the garage. The team quickly got him out on track again but after just a few corners he was on the radio again saying that he had lost the gears. He returned back to the garage for a second time, but with less than five minutes remaining there was no chance to complete the necessary fixes. As a result, Isack didn’t post a time and will start the race from the back of the grid.
Max headed out on track early in Q2 and his opening flyer of 1:32.292 put him in P3, half a second off Q2 pacesetter Lewis, who opened with a lap of 1:31.766. Max returned to the garage, as Lewis shaved another two tenths off his personal best to tighten his grip on P1, Max had a lot to do to take the fight back to the Ferrari driver.
Max returned to the track and powered to a final flyer 1:31.639 to jump to P2, 0.110 off top spot.
With Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc right behind the Dutchman, it set up a nail-biting battle for pole and in the opening runs of Q3 Max drew first blood with a lap of 1:31.373. Neither Charles nor Lando could get near that, but behind them Lewis was finding more time. The Ferrari driver looked to be close but Max’s opener was too good and when the Ferrari driver crossed the line, he was 0.123s off the Dutchman.
And that was all the four-time Champion needed. As the final runs began, Max stayed in the garage until the last moment, waiting to see if anyone could challenge his opening time. Lando was the first to cross the line, qualifying fifth as Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli slotted into fourth. The Ferrari pair were the biggest contenders, but when Lewis suffered a snap in the first sector and then drifted marginally off the pace in the final sector, it was only Charles who remained. But though the Monegasque driver found two tenths over his Q3 opener, he couldn’t topple Max and with a half century of poles in the bag, Max aborted his lap and cruised to the number 1 board in parc fermé.
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Max sweeps to Singapore Sprint victory as Isack retires
Max Verstappen bounced back from losing the lead off the line to take a controlled first career Sprint win at Singapore’s Marina Bay Street Circuit ahead of the Ferraris of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. There was disappointment for Isack Hadjar, however, as an engine issue forced the Frenchman to retire after just three laps.
At lights out, Max initially got away well but in the second phase appeared to suffer wheelspin. That allowed front-row rival George Russell to get past as they headed into Turn 1.
The Dutchman tucked into second ahead of Lewis and began to plot a way back to the front. However, at the end of the opening lap, George put a rear wheel on the slippery white line at the exit of Turn 19 and immediately spun off into the barriers on the pit straight. The Safety car was swiftly deployed.
Further back, lsack was beaten off the line by Pierre Gasly and he was soon under pressure from Haas’ Ollie Bearman. The Frenchman was immediately on the radio saying that he was down on power, Isack reported a more serious issue and on lap 3, under the Safety Car, he steered off track at Turn 5 and retired from the race.
The SC left the track at the end of lap 6 and after backing up the field Max controlled the restart perfectly to retain the lead. He quickly pulled out a 1.2 second lead to Lewis who held a similar gap to Charles and the McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.
And for Max that was job done. With the track still too damp for any slick tyre strategic surprises and with the only drama behind him coming on the final lap when Lando clattered into team-mate Oscar, Max pulled away from the chasing pack and after 20 laps on a murky Marina Bay Street Circuit, the four-time Champion swept to a win that extends his record for Sprint victories to 14 in total. The victory also bumps Max into fifth place in the Drivers’ Championship, seven points ahead of Lando, who dropped to P8 at the flag following his collision with Oscar.
The start was not ideal
“But then we got a bit lucky with what happened with George out of the last corner. After that, you just want to keep it calm and under control because you know that you can't pass around here, and especially in a condition like this with the Intermediates. So, we just tried to bring it home. And of course, happy to win here in the Sprint, but I also know that I want to win tomorrow and not today.” said Max afterwards.
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Max storms to Sprint pole in Singapore
Max Verstappen kicked off his 250th F1 race weekend in style with a superb single flying lap in SQ3 to claim pole for the Sprint at the Singapore Grand Prix by a tenth of a second ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. There was frustration for Isack Hadjar, however. The French driver’s car suffered a technical issue in SQ3, and his final flyer was deleted for a track limits infringement. He is set to start the Sprint from P9 on the grid.
There were a few nervous moments in SQ1 as Max and Isack left it late to head out on track and then, as they began their opening flyers the red flags came out when Cadillac’s Sergio Pérez hit the barriers in Turn 4. The Mexican driver tried to limp back to the pits but when his front broke apart underneath his car and scattered debris across the track the session was halted.
That left just six minutes on the clock and when the lights went green again, Max and Isack took a risk and waited until the last moment to head out in pursuit of a reasonable gap in traffic. Both Bulls kept their cool in the sweltering heat and Max went from P20 to P1 with a time of 1:33.477. That left him just a tenth ahead of George. Isack, meanwhile, jumped from 21st to fifth at the flag with a lap of 1:34.182.
With 10 minutes available in SQ2 Max went out first and his 1:32.724 put him fourth as the opening flyers evolved. After a cool-down lap the four-time Champion went again and though he improved slightly to 1:32.701, he slipped back to P5 at the end of the session. That put him 0.455s behind pacesetter Charles Leclerc and 0.246s ahead of Isack who found almost a second on his final flyer to go through in P6 with a lap of 1:32.947.
After going early in the middle segment, the Bulls left it late in the final segment. While their rivals put early laps, Max and Isack held fire until the final moment. Isack suffered an issue on his car and when he was finally released from the garage, he couldn’t extract ultimate pace from his RB22 and posted a lap of 1:32.048. However, moments after crossing the line his lap was deleted for track limits and his dropped back behind VCARB’s Liam Lawson.
It was a different story for Max. The Dutchman lit up the Marina Bay Street Circuit with a flurry of PB and purple mini sectors and when he crossed the line he stormed to the top of the timesheet, 0.120 clear of George and over two tenths ahead of third-placed Charles Leclerc.