Singapore GP: Carlos Sainz takes pole position in ultra-tight qualifying battle, Red Bull suffer double Q2 exit
Sep 16, 2023
Singapore, September 16 : With a spectacular pole position in Singapore, Carlos Sainz delivered on the promise given by Ferrari throughout the weekend. The Spaniard, who was already on the provisional pole, improved on his penultimate lap to edge out competitor George Russell and teammate Charles Leclerc and secure a P1 start.
A red flag was raised following Lance Stroll's significant crash in the closing moments of qualifying, which caused a hectic session that likely saw several drivers probed for obstructing after qualifying.
But Sainz avoided problems and kept up the pace, improving his provisional pole lap by almost four tenths with a time of 1m 30.984s, good enough to win his second consecutive P1. In second was Russell, as he narrowly missed out on pole by just 0.072s
A disgruntled Leclerc qualified third fastest for Ferrari ahead of Lando Norris' McLaren in fourth, Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes in fifth, and Kevin Magnussen's Haas in sixth.
Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin was seventh fastest, Esteban Ocon of Alpine was eighth, Nico Hulkenberg of the other Haas was ninth, and Liam Lawson of the AlphaTauri, who made it into Q3 for the first time in his brief F1 career, rounded out the top ten.
Lawson’s place in Q3 came at the expense of a Red Bull, with Max Verstappen a surprise victim at the Q2 hurdle. The Dutch driver qualified 11th, and was less than pleased with his car’s performance, while his teammate Sergio Perez also found himself knocked out in 13th.
Several drivers were unable to finish their final laps as a result of Stroll's incident at the conclusion of Q1. The Alfa Romeo driven by Valtteri Bottas, who finished 16th, and Oscar Piastri's McLaren, who finished 17th and was just behind Stroll when he crashed, were among the unfortunate few to be eliminated early.
Logan Sargeant failed to outqualify his Williams teammate Albon in the following race, and the rookie finished in 18th place, ahead of Zhou Guanyu's second Alfa Romeo. Stroll finished last in the field.
