Max on pole, Mercedes on the ropes
A week ago Red Bull had not won a race all year. Now Max Verstappen has won at Sepang, won Saturday's wet sprint in Singapore, and put the car on pole for tonight's Grand Prix. The championship leader's team-mate starts from the back. Marina Bay under lights has rarely looked this interesting.
What happened on Saturday
The sprint started 30 minutes late after a downpour left standing water at Turns 2 and 3, and everyone started on intermediates. George Russell took the lead off the line, then lost the Mercedes on the kerb at the exit of the last corner and hit the inside wall at the end of lap one. Verstappen took it from there and won by 2.591 seconds from Lewis Hamilton, with Charles Leclerc third and championship leader Kimi Antonelli fourth.
On the final lap, Lando Norris dived down the inside of Oscar Piastri and the McLarens spun together. Norris finished eighth; Piastri retired. Team boss Andrea Stella called it "simply not acceptable", and McLaren will talk about it internally. We would like to be a fly on that wall.
The FIA's "mess"
Sprint qualifying had its own software story. After a red flag in SQ1, race control did not switch overtake mode back on, then turned it on for 27 seconds and off again, so some drivers ran with less power than others. The FIA's Nikolas Tombazis blamed "a pop-up window that came on somebody's computer that was not acted on quickly enough", called it "a bit of a mess, quite frankly", and admitted that fairness was compromised. Two software stories in two weekends is a pattern, not bad luck.
Qualifying top 10
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1:31.373 |
| 2 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1:31.427 |
| 3 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | 1:31.496 |
| 4 | Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | 1:31.562 |
| 5 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 1:31.712 |
| 6 | George Russell | Mercedes | 1:31.747 |
| 7 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 1:31.860 |
| 8 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | 1:32.225 |
| 9 | Liam Lawson | Racing Bulls | 1:32.369 |
| 10 | Arvid Lindblad | Racing Bulls | 1:32.781 |
Qualifying order, not the starting grid: Russell starts from the back after power unit penalties from Sepang, and the FIA applied other late penalties. Source: Jolpica-F1 timing data.
What to watch tonight
- Verstappen's launch. Red Bull's starts were poor in Malaysia and again in the sprint, and Verstappen hinted at a change. Pole means nothing if Leclerc gets the better launch to Turn 1.
- Ferrari's double threat. Two red cars on the first two rows. Hamilton says a set-up change "tipped it over the edge" in qualifying; he finished the sprint 2.6 seconds behind Max, so the race pace is there.
- Antonelli's chance. His only title rival in the same garage starts last. A clean P2 or P3 tonight could break the championship open.
- Russell's recovery. He is aiming to finish sixth from the back of the grid. At Marina Bay, where passing is hard and safety cars are common, that is ambitious, but not impossible.
- Heat and haze. The FIA declared a heat hazard, and the government issued a haze warning. Drivers will lose kilos in the cockpit tonight.
Bold callWe stick with our call from Sepang: Verstappen wins Singapore, and Russell recovers to the points. Hold us to it. The verdict goes up after the flag.
Sources: Autosport sprint report and FIA sprint-qualifying coverage; Motorsport.com and RaceFans (McLaren, Hamilton, Russell); GPFans and BBC Sport (heat and haze); qualifying times from Jolpica-F1. Facts as reported up to 11 October 2026, before the race; opinions are ours. See all headlines on the wire →