The Ferrari driver has achieved his ninth pole of the season and Max, who tomorrow will have ‘match point’ for the title, will start eighth after running out of gas in the ‘qualy’
Pérez and Hamilton will escort Leclerc on the grid and Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso have completed the ‘top five’ in a session held in very difficult conditions
charles leclerc, ‘Mister Poleman’, has achieved his ninetieth pole of the season at the Singapore Grand Prix, the seventeenth round of the calendar, in which tomorrow, Sunday, championship leader Max Verstappen will have his first match ball for the title. The Monegasque Ferrari driver has shown this Saturday that he does not plan to make it easy for them and after unceremoniously dominating the third free practice, he has commanded a high tension qualifying in which Sainz and Alonso have also offered the best version of him.
Verstappen has not been able to with the times of Leclerc throughout the session and had to abort his last fastest lap attempt, presumably running out of fuel. Leclerc has been the fastest so far this weekend, with a time of 1.49.412, followed by a Red Bull, but not the one from Verstappen, but Sergio Pérez’s, which has been left at only 22 thousandths. Also Lewis Hamiltonthird at 54 thousandths, was close to pole in his best display of a very tough season for the seven-time Mercedes champion.
Carlos Sainz , who led Friday’s free practice, has made two errors in the final minutes and has not been able to improve in his last stint. He finished fourth, less than two tenths behind his teammate Leclerc and ahead of a Fernando Alonso that has shone again at the wheel of an improved Alpine.
Q1: Even more difficult
If the Marina Bay street circuit in Singapore is already one of the most complicated on the calendar -very fast, with very narrow sections and very close walls-, the rain recorded in recent hours has added a plus of difficulty. Qualifying was held in the dry, although with quite a bit of moisture on the track, which meant that most of the riders chose to start with intermediates.
Leclercwho has dominated the third free practice with more water on the asphalt, has also started in front in the ‘qualy’, although with Verstappen Y Perez in his wake and sainz to 3 tenths. hamiltonwith a new set of tyres, set the fastest time (1.53.161), cutting Leclerc’s time by almost 1 second.
Fernando Alonso He suffered from the start but managed to get through to the next round in ninth position, unlike his teammate Stephen Ocon, who has been one of the five pilots eliminated in the initial selection along with Bottas, Ricciardo and the two Williams’s Albon and Latifi.
Q2: Russell, KO
As track conditions improved, Leclerc and Verstappen have begun to sharpen their ‘claws’. The Monegasque Ferrari driver, who had a slight run off the track in Q1, climbed to the top of the time table (1.52.343), while Maxwho was ‘flying’ in the first sector but lost in the second, was almost four tenths behind.
With five minutes to go, it was necessary to decide whether play it with slicks on a track without much margin for error and still slippery. The favorites didn’t need to take risks, but the Aston Martins, Stroll and Vettel, plus Zhou (Alfa Romeo) if they have dared with the soft ones.
The strategy has not worked and the three have been left out of Q3 along with Mick Schumacher and an amazing George Russell, which has left Mercedes without one of its two tricks, while hamilton it was second. Alonso and Sainz, fifth and sixth, maintained their expectations by going to Q3 without too many problems.
Q3: Ninth pole for Leclerc
No excuses, the battle for pole has already started on soft tyres, except Tsunoda and Magnussen, who have chosen to continue with the input intermediates. From the Red Bull box they have warned Verstappen to save ‘powder’ for his final assault: “The best track conditions will be at the end”, he was informed by radio. Obviously it was not an easy situation to manage, with areas of the track still complicated. Alonso has been placed first (1.52.5) but Hamilton and Leclerc They have left him behind, with a better record for the Englishman (1.51.019), on provisional pole.
Verstappen He brushed the wall on his penultimate lap and was 3 tenths behind lewis, which has returned to track launched. It has not been enough to beat Leclerc (1.49.412) already Perez (1.49.434) and the Briton had to settle for third place on the grid, ahead of the two Spaniards, Sainz and Alonso. Max he had to abort his last attempt when he ran out of gas and tomorrow he will start eighth.
The Dutchman, who reaches Singapore 116 points ahead of Leclerc, he needs to win with a fast lap and for his rival to finish eighth or worse to win his second world title early this Sunday, with five grands prix to go. If you win without a fast lap and Charles is ninth or worse would also do. It doesn’t seem easy, but in an always unpredictable F1 and in a high-risk circuit, anything is possible.
Singapore Grand Prix. Grill:
1. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) 1’49″412
2. Sergio Perez (Red Bull) 1’49″434
3. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) 1’49″466
4. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) 1’49″583
5. Fernando Alonso (Alpine) 1’49″966
6. Lando Norris (McLaren) 1’50″584
7. Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri) 1’51″211
8. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) 1’51″395
9. Kevin Magnussen (Haas) 1’51″573
10. Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) 1’51″983
11. George Russell (Mercedes) 1’54″012
12. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) 1’54″211
13. Mick Schumacher (Haas) 1’54″370
14. Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin) 1’54″380
15. Guanyu Zhou (Alfa Romeo) 1’54″518
16. Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo) 1’56″08
17. Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren) 1’56″226
18. Esteban Ocon (Alpine) 1’56″337
19. Alexander Albon (Williams) 1’56″985
20. Nicholas Latifi (Williams) 1’57″532