George Upsets the Singapore Applecart
04 October 2025, Singapore - George Russell produced one of the most stunning laps of his F1 life to snatch pole for Mercedes in a thrilling Marina Bay qualifying hour, with an angry Max Verstappen second for Red Bull and a resigned Championship leader Oscar Piastri rounding out the top three for McLaren.
Q3: Too close for comfort?
‘Amazing to be on pole position’, said Russell after becoming the fourth different pole-sitter in the last four years at Marina Bay. He was a hair’s breadth away from disaster: his first quick lap saw him clout the wall hard with the right rear of the car approaching the final corners, but he kept his foot planted, finished the lap, then the session. ‘Yesterday was a very challenging day for many different reasons, but it’s good to come back and get a good result today,’ he added. The Englishman’s time of 1m 29.158s was a new outright lap record for Marina Bay and saw him pip Verstappen by just 0.182s. ‘I’m not going to get carried away by this pole position,’ he said. ‘Singapore’s not been the kindest circuit for me me in the past, and that’s been through my own doing the majority of the time. I’m in the best place to start, there’s a good pole-side advantage here, so I’d like to think I can hold the lead into Turn 1.’
Q3: Mad Max, but Red Bull say ‘We’re back in the game’
Verstappen was furious after being baulked on his final flying lap. So much so that he felt he had been denied pole position himself through no fault of his own. ‘Yeah, that’s what happens when there’s a car in front of you just cruising,’ said the irate Dutchman. The car in question was Lando Norris’s McLaren, one of the targets Verstappen is chasing in pursuit of a first Singapore victory and a fifth world title. ‘It’s noted, and it will be remembered as well,’ he added. ‘It was a shame – it could have been close for pole.’ But his performance this weekend proves that team boss Laurent Mekies was right when he said, ‘We’re back in the game’, before qualifying got under way. His #1 driver – without a win or a pole in Singapore –was clearly listening.
‘I don’t think we had four-tenths in us to go and get pole,’ said Piastri, who had the consolation of finishing two places ahead of teammate and title rival Norris.’ Ultimately pretty happy, I feel like it’s been a good weekend so far.’
‘Now it gets into the hot zone’
That was Mercedes top man Toto Wolff’s comment after a stunning finish to the final free practice session. A late flurry saw the top five cars in the session finish within one-tenth of a second of each other. Verstappen topped the session on 1:30.148 from Piastri, followed by Mercedes pair Russell and Antonelli, with Norris in fifth to hold out the promise of that mouth-watering qualifying hour.
Q2: how things can change
In the shadow of the Singapore Flyer, Williams duo Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon were reminded of the ups and downs of a driver’s life. Both men were eliminated in the 15-minute second segment of qualifying. Along with them went Nico Hülkenberg – the German had racked up six successive Q3 appearances at Marina Bay – Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda. Russell topped the times for Mercedes with a 1m:29.562, while teammate Kimi Antonelli recovered from a dubious yellow flag that cost him a lap and finished third. Sandwiched between them? Verstappen’s Red Bull.
Q1: GB to the fore
British drivers took the top three spots in the 18-minute Q1 session as Lewis Hamilton dragged some pace out of his Ferrari to go fastest ahead of George Russell’s Mercedes and the leading McLaren of Lando Norris. The five to fail were Gabriel Bortoloeto’s Sauber, Lance Stroll in the Aston Martin (‘So unbelievable’, said the Canadian, ‘it always just goes bad, man’), Franco Colapinto for Alpine, Esteban Ocon’s Haas and the second Alpine of Pierre Gasly. Liam Lawson’s Racing Bulls mechanics worked wonders to get his damaged car ready for action after a huge P3 crash – and the Kiwi thanked them by getting through to Q2.
P3: A hybrid session
The third practice session had seen a mix of strategies as teams made up for time lost in Friday evening’s interrupted second practice. Some, like Williams, opted to practice qualifying runs on Soft Pirellis while others used the Mediums to get some long runs done. Liam Lawson’s Singapore nightmare continued when the New Zealander planted his Racing Bulls in the wall at Turn 7. Lawson got on the kerb, didn’t slow down and was thrown sideways into the right-hand barrier, severely damaging the car and bringing out the red flag again as he did in P2 on Friday. Not helping the team in their pursuit of Williams for fifth place in the Constructors’ Championship…
F1 Academy: Fastest kid on the Block
Lia Block took a stunning maiden F1 Academy victory in their first – and very hectic -- 14-lap race of the weekend. Starting from pole on the reverse grid alongside ART teammate Aurelia Nobels, the American, who turned 19 three days ago, resisted late pressure and overcame two restarts to win by just under seven-tenths of a second.
‘It was a difficult first half of the race,’ said Block. ‘Thankfully, there was a lot of fighting behind me., so I could just focus on myself. I figured some stuff out, got some more time out of the car and chilled to the end.’ No easy task in Singapore…
Second was title-chasing Maya Weug, the Ferrari-backed Dutch driver also starring as she moved through from eighth on the grid to close the gap on series leader Doriane Pin. Mercedes protégée Pin could finish no higher than fifth. Weug is now 17 points behind Pin going into Sunday’s second race – which they will start together from the front row.
Canadian Nicole Harvda brought out the first Safety Car with a first-lap crash, while a hard-charging Alisha Palmowski triggered the second when she hit the wall on lap 7 after storming through from last on the grid into the top 10.
PCCA: Pereira peerless in Singapore once more
Dylan Pereira’s stranglehold on Singapore continued as the Portuguese-Luxembourg driver claimed victory in the first 12-lap Porsche Carrera Cup Asia race of the weekend. The recently crowned 2025 PCCA champion took both race wins at Marina Bay in 2024 and used a commanding pole position – almost a second faster than Bayley Hall – as the launching-pad for a comfortable win. The Team Shanghai Yonda BWT star was 10.228 seconds clear of Hall’s EBM, with Dylan Yip third for Phantom Global Racing. Pereira also set fastest race lap of 2m 03.623, an average speed of 143.478 km/h. Serial winner Jinlong Bao in seventh took out the Pro-Am class with Henry Kwong the first of Am-class finishers in 14th place.