Max Verstappen roared to an all-important pole position on Saturday for the Singapore Grand Prix to continue a dominant weekend at a Marina Bay Street Circuit that is notoriously difficult for overtaking.
The Red Bull driver, who won the sprint race earlier, clocked a flying lap of 1min 31.373sec to head the Ferrari pair of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, with championship leader Kimi Antonelli fourth in the Mercedes.
Our top three in qualifying 🥉🥇🥈 #F1 #SingaporeGP https://t.co/giXMWLasng
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Reigning world champion Lando Norris was fifth fastest in the McLaren with George Russell sixth quickest.
But Russell will start from the back of the grid after being penalised for using too many new parts.
Oscar Piastri (McLaren), Pierre Gasly (Alpine), Liam Lawson and Arvind Lindblad (both RB) completed the top 10 times.
The starting line-up for Sunday's Singapore Grand Prix 🇸🇬 #F1 #SingaporeGP https://t.co/duNw8PgvWI
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The session was entirely dry after rain had affected the sprint race earlier, for which Verstappen had also been on pole.
Being at the front of the grid gives the 29-year-old Dutchman the perfect platform to hunt for his maiden GP victory in Singapore.
Verstappen has never topped the podium in the Lion City in nine previous race starts since his debut in 2015.
"Of course very happy to be on pole because this is the one I wanted," said Verstappen.
"The car has been pretty strong all weekend. There are always things that can be better but it was enough for pole.
"We have been on a positive trend, so for us it's very special to take pole here."
50th Pole ✅ #F1 || #SingaporeGP 🇸🇬 https://t.co/G3ZN38CvX1
— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) October 10, 2026
Verstappen has been in rampant form in south-east Asia.
He surged to his first grand prix win of the season a week ago in Malaysia and followed it up with a wet and wild Singapore sprint victory earlier.
But Verstappen's Red Bull, as in Malaysia a week ago, got off the line slowly from pole and was overtaken by Russell at the start of the 20-lap dash only for the Englishman to crash soon after.
Verstappen pleaded for his Red Bull team to sort out the sluggish starting before Sunday's race because, unlike at Sepang a week ago, there are few opportunities to overtake on the tight city-centre street circuit.
"The start was horrendous again, so that's definitely something that we need to improve on because if you have something like that tomorrow, that's your race over," said Verstappen.
"We know that's really not our strong area so we need to work on that for tomorrow."
'A REAL FINE LINE'
Leclerc found pace when it mattered to make it onto the front row of the grid alongside Verstappen.
"The good lap was on the right lap at the end, but I had a lot of struggles during this qualifying," admitted the man from Monaco.
"I did some mistakes. I think there was a potential to be on pole today but Max just did a better job."
Hamilton had scorched round quickest in the first two qualifying sessions, but could not get in a smooth lap when it mattered.
"Q1 and Q2 we were awesome," said the seven-time world champion.
"We got to Q3 and I snapped into turn one, and three, and was two-tenths down. The rest of the lap was good.
"And the last lap I just struggled with snapping. There's a real fine line with our car where it's over the edge or under the limit."
Failing to make the top-10 shootout from Q2 were Nico Hulkenberg, who was 11th fastest in the Audi, followed by Oliver Bearman (Haas), Esteban Ocon (Haas), Carlos Sainz (Williams), Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi) and Franco Colapinto (Alpine).
The cars eliminated in Q1 included, surprisingly, the Red Bull of Isack Hadjar who suffered mechanical problems and failed to set a lap time.
He took no further part qualifying along with Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez in Cadillacs, the Aston Martin pair of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll and the Williams of Alex Albon.
Alonso told reporters he would have to change his engine before the race and start from the back.