A week after his Sepang pole, Max Verstappen put Red Bull on top again under the Marina Bay lights. His 1:31.156 in SQ3 beat George Russell by 0.120 seconds, with Charles Leclerc third, 0.243s back. Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris locked out the third row for McLaren, Lewis Hamilton was sixth, and Kimi Antonelli — 84 points clear in the championship — could only manage seventh, 0.693s off pole.

The result had to wait for the stewards. During a red-flagged, chaotic SQ1, Verstappen passed Hamilton in a yellow-flag zone. After the session the stewards found he had breached the yellow-flag rule, but decided against a penalty because he had clearly lifted. Verstappen starts Saturday’s 21-lap Sprint from pole.

Verstappen’s pole survives the stewards

SQ1 lasted barely six minutes before the red flag. Sergio Pérez locked up into Turn 5, hit the barrier and carried on with his Cadillac’s damaged front wing until it broke up, scattering debris across the track. Under the yellows that followed, Verstappen came up on a slow-moving Hamilton after Turn 7 and passed him before Turn 8. Hamilton reported it on the radio; Verstappen said he had passed before the flags were waved and had given the place back.

The stewards saw it differently on the first point: the overtake did break the yellow-flag rule. But according to their decision, reported by GPFans, Verstappen had lifted off and was around 70 km/h slower than on another push lap in the same session, while Hamilton had slowed to below 60 km/h. Their verdict on the pass:

“an unfortunate consequence of the significant closing speed differential”

— FIA stewards’ decision, via GPFans

No penalty, then, and no change to the grid. It capped a night that began with a scare for Red Bull: PlanetF1 reports the team changed the energy-recovery unit on Verstappen’s car before the session as a precaution against a suspected fault.

Russell second on the night it counts

Russell’s grid penalty applies only to Sunday, which made Sprint Qualifying the one session this weekend where he could turn pace into a strong grid slot. Fastest in FP1, he survived a scare in SQ2 — PlanetF1 reports he aborted a lap after a front-right lock-up and briefly sat in the elimination zone — before a 1:32.614 got him through. His final lap left him just over a tenth short of pole.

Antonelli never found the same rhythm and ended seventh, 0.573s behind his team-mate. PlanetF1 reports Mercedes removed the updated wing from Antonelli’s car after FP1, putting both cars on the same specification for the rest of the weekend.

Ferrari and McLaren in the mix

Leclerc was the fastest driver in SQ2 with a 1:32.246 and converted that into third, 0.243s from pole. Hamilton led the order before the red flag in SQ1 but was less comfortable later in the session: he had a lap deleted for track limits at Turn 16 in SQ2, reported snaps on his final run and finished sixth. McLaren’s pair were separated by little more than a tenth, Piastri fourth and Norris fifth.

Track limits, delays and the rest of the grid

Two drivers reached SQ3 but left without a time. Isack Hadjar’s 1:32.048 was deleted for track limits at Turn 19 and Pierre Gasly’s lap went for track limits at Turn 2, so they start ninth and tenth behind Liam Lawson, who put the Racing Bulls eighth. Gasly had also nudged the pit wall leaving the garage in SQ2, according to PlanetF1.

Franco Colapinto, Nico Hülkenberg, Oliver Bearman, Gabriel Bortoleto, Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon went out in SQ2. Arvid Lindblad, Lance Stroll, Alexander Albon, Pérez, Valtteri Bottas and Carlos Sainz were eliminated in SQ1. A timing-system problem delayed the start of SQ2, and two investigations into drivers exceeding the maximum delta time — one in SQ1, one in SQ2 involving both McLarens — ended with no further action.

The session stayed dry. At the start, the track was 44.5°C with the air at 30.3°C and humidity close to 78%; by the end of the evening the track had cooled to around 40°C.

Next: a wet first Sprint?

The 21-lap Sprint starts on Saturday at 11:00 Paris time (17:00 in Singapore), with Grand Prix qualifying four hours later. The forecast is the big unknown: at the time of writing, Open-Meteo gives a rain probability of 98% at 17:00 local time. After a single practice hour and no wet running, a rain-hit Sprint on a street circuit would hand the advantage to whoever reads the conditions first — and Verstappen starts at the front.

Sources

Classification, times, deleted laps, red flag, investigations and weather: OpenF1 session results, race control messages and weather data for Sprint Qualifying (session 11379).

Stewards’ decision on Verstappen: GPFans; incident background from RaceFans and Formula1.com.

Pérez crash, Red Bull ERS change, Russell’s SQ2 lock-up, Mercedes wing, Gasly: PlanetF1 Sprint Qualifying report.

Sprint forecast: Open-Meteo hourly forecast for Marina Bay, retrieved October 9, 2026 at 18:00 Paris time.