Up Next
Lando Norris beat Formula 1 championship leader Max Verstappen to pole position for the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix as Ferrari's challenge fell apart.
Norris bounced back from his unfortunate Q1 exit in Baku in style, taking pole in Singapore with a 1m29.525s, having been the pole standout throughout practice.
But Verstappen, who holds a 59-point lead that Norris would love to properly erode this weekend, stole a place on the front row as Red Bull turned things around after a miserable Friday.
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner admitted the team "overcompensated" with its set-up during practice as Red Bull looked to avoid a repeat of its 2023 Singapore howler.
An intense night of work - including simulator work from the likes of ex-F1 driver Sebastien Buemi - helped the Red Bull get into a much better window, on Verstappen's side of the garage at least.
There was a strong recovery from a bad Friday for Mercedes too with Lewis Hamilton and George Russell third and fourth.
That's the first time Hamilton has outqualified Russell since July's Belgian GP.
Oscar Piastri continued to be a step behind his team-mate Norris in Singapore. He ended up fifth on the grid with three drivers filling the four tenths deficit to his team-mate.
Nico Hulkenberg was an impressive sixth quickest for Haas ahead of Fernando Alonso's Aston Martin and Yuki Tsunoda's RB.
Ferrari challenge falls apart
Ferrari appeared to be McLaren's closest challenger after practice but things went badly wrong in Q3.
Carlos Sainz's Ferrari speared into the barriers at the final corner while he was preparing for his first push lap just four minutes into the session.
That brought out double waved yellow flags which Verstappen had to drive through to finish his lap. Verstappen lifted as he passed the incident but his laptime was deleted as per the double waved yellow rules.
The session was then red flagged. After around a 20-minute delay for barrier repairs, Q3 resumed for the final eight minutes, leaving the drivers with only one shot at pole.
Only Piastri and Hulkenberg had set legal 'banker' laps before Sainz's crash.
Charles Leclerc's sole Q3 laptime was only good enough for seventh, as Ferrari struggled with tyre temperatures, but it was quickly deleted for track limits, leaving Leclerc only ninth.
Sainz was also noted by the stewards for crossing the track on foot after the wreck. He'll share the fifth row of the grid with Leclerc.
Perez out in Q2
Sergio Perez couldn't repeat the performance he showed in his stand-out Baku weekend, instead returning to an all too familiar early qualifying exit.
He failed to reach Q3 for the first time since the summer break, dropping out in Q2 in 13th place, over a tenth away from the cut-off and just shy of nine tenths slower than Verstappen.
Perez was surprised by his Q2 exit having lapped slower than he did in Q1. He put it partly down to difficulties in getting the right rear tyre temperature.
Perez was beaten by both Williams drivers, with Alex Albon just 0.007s quicker than his new team-mate Franco Colapinto, who once again impressed.
Albon was furious with the state of his tyres throughout qualifying and let his disappointment be known on team radio after he was pipped to a place in Q3 by Tsunoda by just 0.024s.
Kevin Magnussen and Esteban Ocon were also dumped out in a relatively distant 14th and 15th.
Ricciardo falters in possible farewell qualifying
Daniel Ricciardo was knocked in Q1 in what could be his final F1 qualifying session.
Ricciardo was only 16th fastest, three tenths slower than team-mate Tsunoda and just over a tenth from what he needed to prevent a first Q1 exit since the Spanish Grand Prix.
It couldn't have been timed worse for Ricciardo who faces the prospect of being replaced by Liam Lawson at RB as early as the next race in the US, before which Red Bull will make a crucial decision on his future.
Lance Stroll's Aston Martin was the other big causality in Q1. He was 17th, ahead of Pierre Gasly's Alpine and the two Saubers, led by Valtteri Bottas.
