Max Verstappen scorched to pole position for the sprint race in Singapore ahead of George Russell.
However the Red Bull driver is under investigation for overtaking Lewis Hamilton under yellow flags during the first round of qualifying.Verstappen took provisional pole position off Charles Leclerc with his sole lap of SQ3. Russell then pulled out a rapid lap in his Mercedes to join Verstappen on the front row of the grid.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who started the weekend running Mercedes’ upgrade package, could only manage seventh on the grid. The Ferrari and McLaren drivers separated him from his team mate.
Lewis Hamilton began his final lap strongly but lost time with a few snaps of oversteer in the middle sector. Both McLaren drivers beat his time, leaving him sixth.
Liam Lawson took a strong eighth on the grid after his team mate Arvid Lindblad was eliminated in the first round. The Racing Bulls driver benefited from Isack Hadjar going wide in the final corner, exceeding track limits and losing his lap time as a result.
The session was disrupted by a timing fault which struck at the end of SQ1. The problem developed at the end of the first round of qualifying when several drivers’ lap times failed to appear on the screen. A number of “overtake enabled” and “overtake disabled” messages also appeared incorrectly.
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The FIA initially advised they were “investigating whether we can proceed with the rest of the session”. Some drivers who were eliminated in SQ1 were unsure where they qualified when the session ended. However SQ2 commenced soon afterwards.
Franco Colapinto was unable to join his team mate in SQ3, but will start immediately behind him. The Audi and Haas drivers also dropped out at this stage, as did Fernando Alonso, who left his team mate behind in SQ1.
The first round of qualifying was interrupted after Sergio Perez crashed at turn five. He was able to extract his Cadillac from the barrier but its front wing was hanging off and eventually part of it came loose, leaving a lump of debris approaching turn eight.
Verstappen slipped past Hamilton’s Ferrari as they reached the yellow flag. The Red Bull driver immediately suspected he had broken the rules and got on the radio to his team. The stewards will investigate the incident after the session but confirmed they would take no action against Perez.
All 22 drivers participated in the restart. The Cadillac drivers went no further but both of them beat Carlos Sainz Jnr, who will start last in his Williams.
Update: FIA confirms drivers lost power in qualifying due to Overtake Mode error
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