Norris earns pole at Marina Bay in Red Flag-affected quali; Verstappen pips Hamilton for P2; Ferrari Q3 nightmare as Sainz crashes out, Leclerc time deleted

With Formula 1 entering the final third of its longest ever season and the Championship hunt as tight as it has been in several years, Saturday Qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix was as dramatic as it was potentially consequential. McLaren’s Lando Norris, desperate to close his gap to Red Bull’s points-leading Max Verstappen after a difficult weekend in Azerbaijan, was able to take the pole for Sunday’s race with a post-Red Flag one-lap flier late in Q3. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz had crashed out midway through Q3 in bizarre fashion during a pre-hot lap warm up, bringing out the Red Flag to retrieve the Spaniard’s stricken Prancing Horse form the final corner’s Tecpro barriers.  With a little over 8 minutes remaining when the session restarted, McLaren opted to send both their cars out first amongst the remaining nine to set times and not wait around for any potential track improvement by the time the clock ran out. It worked well for Norris, who hooked up a lap good enough for P1 but less well for teammate Oscar Piastri. Piastri, last week’s winner at Baku, had been in the top spot before the Sainz stoppage but the young Aussie could not improve and was eventually relegated to P5 by the session’s end.

Carlos Sainz goes crashing out of Q3 💥😵#F1 #SingaporeGP pic.twitter.com/MQFKB6GrXU

— Formula 1 (@F1) September 21, 2024

After a multi-race qualifying drought, Verstappen returned to his excellent form under the pressure of the one-lap shootout, besting Mercedes Lewis Hamilton for P2 in a car that had looked nowhere for most of the session. Lining up alongside Norris on the front row, this race could come down to which driver gets away better at the very start, as passing at Marina Bay Street Circuit can be extremely difficult. Hamilton was nonetheless pleased with his P3 effort, the team unlocking pace in the car overnight after some mediocre performances in Friday’s two practice sessions. Silver Arrows stablemate George Russell was slightly less pleased with the unpredictable performance of his Pirelli tires but still  managed to set the fourth fastest time to earn a spot alongside Hamilton on Row 2. Nico Hulkenberg far out-performed his mediocre Haas and set a stunning time good enough for P6. Aston Martin’s savvy Fernando Alonso pulled the same trick to take a solid P7. RB Honda’s Yuki Tsunoda earned P8, while Ferrari suffered the indignity of not only Sainz having to start the race from P10 due to his crash but also seeing Charles Leclerc’s decent final lap deleted for a track limits violation, dropping the Monegasque to P9 and making for a very unhappy fifth-row duo for the Scuderia.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Singapore GP:

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN beginning at 8 am here in the States. With tensions mounting  and time running short in the hunt for glory in 2024, as well as a very tight circuit where overtaking is very difficult and Safety Cars are de rigueur, look for loads of close quarters action between the top contenders, several of whom are out of position, in a desperate scramble for maximum points. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!