Russell nails Singapore pole as Verstappen fumes, McLaren split the Mercedes-Red Bull fight
Under the lights and the pressure, George Russell threaded a razor’s edge Singapore lap to take pole position, beating Max Verstappen by 0.182s and planting Mercedes squarely on the front foot for Sunday. It’s Russell’s first pole at Marina Bay, built on two laps good enough for P1, and it came with a nod to the other side of the garage: rookie Kimi Antonelli’s direction on setup proved the compass Mercedes needed after a muddled Friday.
If that sounds like a storyline with layers, it is. Russell wasn’t the yardstick in practice, but he was icy when it mattered. The Mercedes looked alive on rotation through the 90-degree stuff, happy on the curbs, and—crucially—under him in the final sector where Singapore laps are made or lost. He delivered twice. Proper pole.
Verstappen, though, feels he had one in the locker. The Red Bull driver shut down his last flyer at the final corner after catching Lando Norris’ McLaren late in the lap, then responded with the kind of sarcasm you could see from the back row: a thumbs-up to the orange car as he cruised by. On the radio, Gianpiero Lambiase couldn’t resist: “You can thank your mate for that.” The stopwatch says Verstappen was close enough to make Russell sweat. We’ll never know if it was close enough to break him.
McLaren split the heavyweights. Championship leader Oscar Piastri starts third, with Norris fifth after the Verstappen moment overshadowed what had been a tidy session. Between them is Antonelli in fourth—a quietly impressive effort that underlines why Russell was so effusive about the Italian’s homework. The kid found a direction, the senior driver cashed it in.
Ferrari will have wished for a little more sparkle under the street lights: Lewis Hamilton lines up sixth, Charles Leclerc seventh. The red cars looked planted but a touch short on front-end bite versus the Mercedes and McLaren packages, and once the circuit ramped up, they ran out of time to chase it.
Two other headline acts in the top 10: Isack Hadjar stuck the Racing Bulls eighth in what’s becoming a calling-card season for the Frenchman, and Oliver Bearman delivered ninth for Haas, ahead of Fernando Alonso in tenth for Aston Martin. Bearman’s habit of landing in Q3 at tracks that punish hesitation is starting to look like anything but a fluke.
A few notables outside the top 10: Nico Hülkenberg leads row six for Sauber, with Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz 12th and 13th for Williams. Liam Lawson starts 14th in the second Racing Bulls; Yuki Tsunoda will have work to do from 15th in the Red Bull after missing the final cut by less than a tenth. Behind them, Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber), Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), Franco Colapinto and Pierre Gasly (both Alpine) flank Esteban Ocon’s Haas. From first to last, the entire field is covered by roughly a second and a half—classic Singapore compression.
The lap that set it all up? 1:29.158 for Russell, precise and aggressive without crossing that Marina Bay line where ambition meets TecPro. Verstappen’s split was trending purple before he found Norris; he’ll start alongside the Mercedes regardless, and if Red Bull’s race pace looks anything like its Friday long-runs, the opening stint could be spicy.
So, where does that leave the chessboard for Sunday?
– Track position is king. It’s still Singapore, even with a slightly faster-flowing layout. Control the pace at the front, manage the temp windows, and you dictate pit windows.
– Safety Cars are likely. Undercuts are powerful, but timing is everything here; a mistimed stop can wreck your day. Expect one-stoppers split across medium-to-hard and hard-to-medium, with eyes on an opportunistic Safety Car dash.
– Starts matter more than usual. Russell’s launch will decide how aggressively he defends into Turn 1 and through the first sector. If Verstappen clears him early, the race could bend Red Bull’s way in a hurry. If not, Mercedes will look to squeeze the pace, cover, and force Max into overheating the fronts in traffic.
– McLaren’s hand looks solid. Piastri has the clean side of the grid, Norris the motivation. If they split strategies, they can ask questions of both Mercedes and Red Bull simultaneously.
– Ferrari need a mover. Hamilton has been excellent off the line this season; leapfrogging one McLaren could bring him into the podium conversation. Leclerc, boxed in on the dirty side, has to be patient.
And keep an eye on the kids. Antonelli and Hadjar both have cars underneath them and nothing to lose. They’ve been calm on out-laps, aggressive when it counts—two traits that tend to translate when Singapore turns attritional.
For Russell, it’s a chance to convert Mercedes’ most convincing Saturday of the year into something tangible on Sunday. For Verstappen, it’s the familiar hunt, only this time with a sarcastic thumbs-up still lingering in the mirrors. One driver will sleep well; the other won’t. Both know the first 300 meters tomorrow might decide everything.
