Singapore Grand Prix: Max Verstappen Beats George Russell for Sprint Pole
BBC Sport
Verstappen on sprint pole after another settings issue
Image source: Getty Images
Image caption: Max Verstappen is yet to win a race in Singapore
By Andrew Benson, F1 Correspondent in Singapore
Published 9 October 2026, 14:47 BST
Updated 5 minutes ago
Red Bull's Max Verstappen secured sprint pole at the Singapore Grand Prix, defeating Mercedes driver George Russell by 0.12 seconds. Ferrari's Charles Leclerc took third place.
McLaren's Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris placed fourth and fifth, respectively, ahead of Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton, who started qualifying earlier and dropped down the order.
Championship leader Kimi Antonelli, utilizing a Mercedes upgrade that underperformed in Malaysia, managed only seventh position.
The race was marred by further technical glitches, including an engine settings issue five days after a similar problem caused cars to crawl during formation laps in wet conditions in Malaysia. This latest issue involved activate and deactivating overtake mode within 28 seconds.
According to the FIA's statement:
"During the first period of sprint qualifying there was a human error in race control unrelated to the timing issue also encountered in SQ1... This issue... meant overtake mode was not available after the red flag period during SQ1."
"When it became apparent that overtake mode was not active... it was then activated for a period of 27 seconds before being deactivated again. The FIA acknowledges that this unfortunate human error had an impact on the performance of certain cars..."
Verstappen, who won his first race of the season in Malaysia last weekend, expressed surprise at achieving pole position despite technical difficulties with the car. He faces an investigation for overtaking under yellow flags before the first session was stopped due to Sergio Perez's crash.