Carlos Sainz can continue to dream! The Spaniard gave Ferrari their second pole position in a row after that of the Italian GP. Carlos confirms that he has made a leap in mental quality because he signed the start at the pole in the decisive moment of Q3, setting a unique time that allowed him to beat the time of 1’31” with an excellent 1’31” 984 . The Scuderia saw the entire red front row snatched by George Russell with Mercedes by seven thousandths of a second, but Charles Leclerc is just 79 thousandths behind his teammate, a sign that tomorrow the game for victory will be wide open with Red Bull very late. Who expected a Ferrari in pole position at Marina Bay? Probably no one, but it’s clear that the Cavallino team has found something that seems to have given wings to the SF-23. Charles Leclerc fought for pole until the end: a small mistake in the final stretch of the track cost him his position in front of everyone, but the two reds on the flying lap showed that they fear no rivals. Now we’ll have to see how things go in the race pace, but with Red Bull behind and Aston Martin not very competitive in the flying lap, the red will have to deal with the Mercedes and the game seems open…
Geotrge Russell has found a shot to get between the two Ferraris: the Englishman wants to take the Star team by the reins and once again he is ahead of Lewis Hamilton who pays half a second from his colleague! Lewis is fifth, preceded by another Mercedes-powered single-seater: we are talking about Lando Norris’ McLaren. With the MCL60 revised in aerodynamics with an important package he never entered the fight for the front row, but tomorrow he will be a fearsome protagonist with the papaya.
The surprise in Singapore is Haas which brought two cars into the Top 10 with Kevin Magnussen extraordinary sixth and Nico Hulkenberg ninth. The American team made the most of the two drivers and now Gunther Steiner hopes to turn the excellent qualifying into points on Sunday.
Fernando Alonso disappointed with the Aston Martin: the Verdona has a good race pace, but the six tenths paid in qualifying cost a lot, because the Spaniard is relegated to seventh position, just ahead of Esteban Ocon’s Alpine which went beyond the visible limit of the Enstone machine.
One of the heroes of the day is Liam Lawson who brought the AlphaTauri to tenth position: the New Zealander is amazing because he was able to make the most of the renewed AT04. It will be difficult to put him already to bring Daniel Ricciardo back. The Australian must start to worry…
The incredible happens in Singapore with Max Verstappen staying out of Q3 with a Red Bull in serious technical difficulty on the Marina Bay curves: the world champion got out of the cockpit very annoyed for having taken over seven tenths from Ferrari in Q2 Carlos Sainz. The Dutchman was overtaken by 7 thousandths by Liam Lawson with the AlphaTauri, in a lap that Max did not prepare as always, revealing a very nervous and unstable car. Sergio Perez also knows something about it as he ended up spinning on the final lap so he too didn’t go beyond the 13th fastest time. It’s been five years (Russia 2018) since the two Red Bulls failed to get to Q3!
Verstappen’s worst qualifying of the year is likely to be made worse by penalties as the orange driver is under investigation for blocking the line of cars exiting the pit lane. Operation prohibited by the rules, just as he is accused of impiding in Q2 against Yuki Tsunoda who had to abort his first run. In short, troubled waters at Red Bull: the team knew that Singapore was the hardest track for them, but they didn’t expect so many twists…
Twelfth place for Pierre Gasly with Alpine ahead of the aforementioned Sergio Perez and Alexander Albon with Williams. Yuki Tsunoda is 15th with AlphaTauri: the Japanese was nervous because in addition to Verstappen’s impiding he had to go to the FIA weigh-in: in the last run the Oriental was unable to find a clean lap and was excluded.
Q1 was interrupted shortly before the checkered flag due to the scary accident involving Lance Stroll. The Canadian literally demolished his Aston Martin on the outside of the last corner, after correcting the trajectory with an overly violent countersteer which caused a sharp reaction from the green rider after going wide on the curb. The car shot outwards, crashing at high speed into the guards.
Lance Stroll after the terrible crash at the end of Q1: Aston Martin was destroyed
The left front wheel tore, despite the three retention cables that the FIA introduced since 2018. The Aston Martin, after a carambola, stopped in the middle of the track against traffic, avoided by Oscar Piastri’s McLaren. The Canadian pilot got out of the cockpit by his own means, but was taken to the Medical Center following the procedure. Stroll is experiencing the most difficult moment of his career: the AMR23 has been demolished and the Silverstone team technicians will have to rebuild the car starting from the spare chassis.
By virtue of the crash, Oscar Piastri did not pass the trap: the New Zealander had to abort his last attempt with McLaren and ended his qualifying in 17th position behind Valtteri Bottas, the first of those excluded with Alfa Romeo. The Finnish driver with the revised C43 with a new aerodynamic package did better than his confirmed teammate: Guanyu Zhou did not go beyond 19th place. Logan Sargeant also remained out with Williams, 18th. The entire grid was within 1″4: this data demonstrates the competitiveness threshold reached by the current F1…
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