Race review: Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix 2024

SINGAPORE – Championship rivals Lando Norris and Max Verstappen will start side by side on the front row of the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday.

McLaren's Norris, who is 59 points behind Verstappen in the drivers' championship, secured pole position by 0.203 seconds over the Red Bull driver, while Lewis Hamilton secured third place on the grid for Mercedes.

Norris has seven races left to close the gap to Verstappen, having closed the gap to 19 points on the leader in the last three races.

Norris said he was happy with his lap. “It was tough, especially towards the end of qualifying. I was struggling to make progress and gain a lot of lap time. And all the other guys around me seemed to be getting faster and faster. That put me under even more pressure because it was only one lap at the end. But it was enough for pole and I'm happy with that, especially as it's Singapore.”

He added: “I had confidence and I could just do what I've been doing all weekend… It's tricky, the car moves, it's bumpy, it's easy to brake a metre too late… so you pay the price for overdriving and overdoing it, and I stayed calm and did what I had to do.”

Verstappen said afterwards: “I think the whole qualifying went quite well actually. We were able to improve the car from run to run. I'm happy to be on the front row. If you look at where we came from yesterday, Q3 was tough. Your lap gets cancelled with the double yellow phase, then everyone only has one run to complete the lap. You don't want to overdo it, so you want to stay on the limit. I'll take second place, I'm happy with that.”

George Russell will start fourth in the second Mercedes ahead of Oscar Piastri, who won the last race in Azerbaijan but struggled to match his teammate Norris' performance on a single lap in Singapore.

Mercedes teammate Hamilton, whose best qualifying performance this year was second place at the British Grand Prix, said afterwards: “Qualifying has been a disaster for me all year and I worked hard to get back to the front and suddenly the car came to life in qualifying for the first time in a long time.”

Nico Hülkenberg was one of the stars of qualifying on Saturday, taking sixth place on the grid for Haas ahead of Fernando Alonso's Aston Martin in seventh and RB's Yuki Tsunoda in eighth.

Charles Leclerc will start ninth after his Q3 lap time, which would have been good enough for seventh place, was deleted for exceeding the track limits at Turn 2.

A year after his pole position at the same circuit, Carlos Sainz crashed at the final corner while preparing for his first flying lap.

The Ferrari driver lost control of the rear of his car in turns 18 and 19 and crashed into the barriers. Due to the accident, he was unable to set a time in Q3 and qualified in tenth place.

Alexander Albon will start the race from 11th place, with his new Williams teammate Franco Colapinto just 0.007s behind in 12th. Albon was heard on the team radio after the session asking: “What are we doing here?” after both Williams drivers appeared to struggle to get the most out of their tyres.

Red Bull's Sergio Perez will start from 13th place after another lackluster qualifying performance. He looked to have made a breakthrough last weekend in Azerbaijan, but after his crash on the penultimate lap, his performance in qualifying in Singapore will only increase the pressure on the Mexican.

Kevin Magnussen will start from 14th place for Haas after missing last weekend's race in Azerbaijan due to a racing ban, ahead of Alpine's Esteban Ocon in 15th.

Daniel Ricciardo missed a place in Q2 by 0.127 seconds, further fuelling rumours that this could be his last race weekend with RB.

After showing promising performances in practice, the Australian was just a second off the fastest time in Q1, but in such a competitive field, that was enough to see him miss out on Q2. RB reserve driver Liam Lawson has been linked with his place for next year, with the possibility of him being brought into the car quicker at the next round in Austin to provide additional preparation for 2025.

Aston Martin's Lance Stroll will start in 17th place ahead of the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and the two Saubers of Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu, which form the last row of the grid.