SINGAPORE: George Russell put Mercedes on pole position for the Singapore Grand Prix on Saturday with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen taking the second spot on the front row and complaining of being obstructed as he tried to chase down the Englishman.

Russell crashed in practice on Friday but drove brilliantly around the Marina Bay track in the final round of qualifying to put in two laps worthy of pole, his best timed at one minute 29.158 seconds.

“Amazing to be on pole position,” said Russell, who might take some encouragement from the fact that the driver on pole has won 10 of 15 editions of the Singapore Grand Prix.

“Yesterday was a very challenging day for many different reasons, but it’s good to come back and get a good result today. Of course, there’s a long, sweaty race tomorrow.”

Championship leader Oscar Piastri, who has a 69-point advantage over Verstappen, will start on the second row of the with the other Mercedes driver, Kimi Antonelli, after clocking the third fastest time.

Dutchman Verstappen, who won the last two rounds of the championship from pole, was 0.182 seconds back and accused McLaren’s Lando Norris of blocking him and forcing him to abort his final flying lap.

“It was close. The lap itself was coming nicely ... but unfortunately, I had a car like two seconds in front of me in the financial chicane,” said the four-times world champion.

“I think it’s quite clear that that’s not nice when it happens. It could have been avoided.”

Norris, who won from pole in Singapore last year but was fifth fastest on Saturday and will line up in row three with Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, dismissed the complaint.

“They always complain,” said the Englishman, who trails Piastri by 25 points in the title race. “They complain about everything. That’s Red Bull.”

McLaren need 13 points from their two drivers in Sunday’s race to clinch a second consecutive constructors’ championship title.

“Obviously, I would have wanted more, but I don’t think we had four tenths in it to go and get pole,” said Australian Piastri.

“It was a pretty clean session, so that’s all I can ask for.”

Charles Leclerc put the other Ferrari on the fourth row alongside the Racing Bulls car of Isack Hadjar, while Haas driver Oliver Bearman and Aston Martin veteran Fernando Alonso will make up the fifth.

Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson, who crashed in practice on Friday and again earlier on Saturday, made it through to Q2 but was eliminated before the final shootout and will be on row seven.

Carlos Sainz, a winner in Singapore for Ferrari and third for Williams in Baku last time out, also failed to get through to Q3 and will start alongside the New Zealander.

That is pending an investigation into the legality of the Williams cars, which could save Pierre Gasly from ignominy of starting last on the grid after his Alpine ground to a halt in Q1.

Published in Dawn, October 5th, 2025