Mercedes’ George Russell stole the spotlight from the title contenders with a stunning pole position at the Singapore Grand Prix.
Russell’s first pole since the Canadian Grand Prix in June, which he won, was achieved by 0.182 seconds from Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
McLaren’s championship leader Oscar Piastri took third place, with his title rival and team-mate Lando Norris fifth, behind Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli.
Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc took sixth and seventh.
It was Mercedes’ first pole in Singapore since Hamilton set his famous lap in 2018 and came as a surprise as Russell gatecrashed Norris and Piastri’s fight.
The talk before the weekend was about whether Verstappen could beat McLaren and take a third consecutive win.
And while Verstappen does start the race ahead of both McLarens, and with a strong chance of bolstering his title credentials, it was Russell who came out on top.
He set the fastest lap on his first run in final qualifying, despite brushing the wall out of Turn 17, and then lowered it by 0.007secs on his second run.
Verstappen unhappy with Norris
Verstappen and Piastri both failed to improve on their final laps – and the Dutchman blamed that on Norris going slowly in front of him in the final sector.
The incident happened on the run to the final corner, where Norris was on the inside coming into the pits as Verstappen sought to complete his lap.
His engineer Gianpiero Lambiase said “you can thank your mate for that” – a reference to the friendship between Verstappen and Norris.
Verstappen, who looked angry about the situation in the immediate aftermath of qualifying, said: “Without that I think it would have been close for pole.”
The four-time champion later added: “You need every kind of clean air that you can have on a Q3 lap, especially because you’re fully on the limit with braking and everything. And I lost a bit of downforce with that. So I went straight on.”
He had calmed down by the end of the official news conference, after which he told BBC Sport: “Of course these things happen, I just hope it wasn’t deliberate.”
Norris shrugged the incident off, saying “Ah, they always complain. They complain about everything. It’s Red Bull. I was like three seconds ahead or something.”
Asked whether his brush with the wall on his first lap was a kiss or a hit, Russell said: “A bit more of a snog.
“When you’re on a really strong lap and you just touch the wall like that, you’re a little bit tentative going into the next corner.
“You just don’t know if you’ve got a puncture or the car’s just going to spin out on you. And obviously it’s a very fast corner, but all good in the end.”
Russell, who crashed on Friday, added: “I had a difficult day yesterday for many reasons but it’s good to come back and get a good result today. I knew there was potential in the car.”
