Total Red Bull short circuit, Stroll shoots it! Who won the crazy qualifying in Singapore?

With the Italian Grand Prix, Formula 1 said goodbye to Europe for this year and headed to Singapore. Carlos Sainz took his second pole position in a row under the lights of the city circuit. Max Verstappen and Red Bull experienced their absolute worst qualifying of the season so far, crashing out in the second part of qualifying.

Ahead of this year’s race, the Marina Bay circuit underwent a major makeover of the final sector. The four slow corners, which forced the drivers to save their tyres in qualifying to avoid overheating at the end of the lap, were cancelled. But the newly created straight should open up a new opportunity for overtaking, which is notoriously difficult on the streets of Singapore.

The first part of qualifying (Q1)

The Red Bull, which has so far gone through this season unbeaten, was surprisingly troubled during free practice. Both drivers complained of an unstable rear end and Verstappen additionally had to deal with gearbox issues at the end of the last practice session.

The first part of qualifying confirmed the Austrian stable’s early woes. The championship leader’s first attempt was only good enough for sixth place. Even in the second attempts he was outclassed by Carlos Sainz, whose performances in free practice indicated Ferrari’s strength at this circuit.

In the final fast laps, the track’s significant acceleration was evident, with Yuki Cunoda’s time coming out on top. Not even half the field could complete their final attempts when Lance Stroll lost control of his car at the last corner and crashed hard into the barrier.

RED FLAGS!! Obrovská havárie, Lance Stroll totálně zdemoloval svůj vůz. Oscar Piastri v důsledku toho nepostupuje do Q2. Velká smůla pro pilota McLarenu, Stroll by měl být naštěstí bez vážnějších zranění. Uff, to byla rána…#F1 #SingaporeGP pic.twitter.com/hUPjZN5QCu

— Tomáš Myšák (@mysak_tomas) September 16, 2023

The ensuing red flag thwarted the efforts of Oscar Piastri, who was just behind the Canadian driver. His previous time was only good enough for 17th place, so after several great weekends the 22-year-old Australian will start from deep in the field. Along with Piastri, Valtteri Bottas, Logan Sargeant, Zhou Guangyu and just Stroll dropped out of Q1.

Exiting the pits in the final minutes of qualifying, Verstappen came into the crosshairs of the sports commissioners. He stopped at the end of the pit lane for no reason and held up both Mercedes drivers, among others, despite the green lights being on.

Second part of qualifying (Q2)

The second part of qualifying wasn’t ideal for Verstappen either. The Dutchman stayed on the racing line before Turn 4 just as the speeding Cunoda was approaching. The latter had to avoid Verstappen and threw away his attempt at a fast lap.

Before the final attempts, the non-advancing positions were occupied by, in addition to Cunoda, Sergio Pérez, Nico Hülkenberg, Liam Lawson and Alex Albon, whose Williams is not suited by tight slow corners.

A two-minute nightmare for Red Bull began at the start of the second attempts. Verstappen messed up the very first section of the start and was unable to close his significant gap for the rest of the lap. He was shot down from provisional tenth place by Lawson in his third career F1 qualifying session.

Pérez failed to finish his second attempt after he braked his wheels and subsequently spun his monoplane. He will therefore stand two positions behind his teammate in 13th place at the start for now, pending an investigation into Verstappen’s incidents.

Cunod’s second attempt was also unsuccessful, ending qualifying in 15th place. Albon and Gasly also crashed out of the second part of qualifying

Third qualifying session (Q3)

With the Red Bull out of contention, a battle for pole position could have broken out between Ferrari, Mercedes and Lando Norris. Sainz seemed to have regained a huge amount of confidence after his great performance at Monza and worked his magic behind the wheel of his car all weekend.

So it was no surprise that after the first few attempts, it was he who stood in provisional first place, two tenths ahead of Leclerc.

On his second attempt, George Russell drove a wedge between the Ferraris. His time of just seven thousandths of a second prevented Ferrari from taking the front row at the start of Sunday’s grand prix.

Norris will line up alongside Leclerc at the start and ahead of his compatriot Lewis Hamilton, who had been losing ground to Russell throughout the weekend.

Magnussen scored a great result for Haas. He also managed to outperform Fernando Alonso, and will line up sixth on the grid. The other driver of the American team was not left behind either, with Hülkenberg taking his place on the fifth row together with Lawson.

Esteban Ocon, tomorrow’s birthday boy, starting from eighth place, will have a good chance of scoring points. He has only taken five points from the last six Grands Prix.

PROVISIONAL GRID

It's set to be a busy night in the stewards' room, but here's how our 20 drivers qualified on-track on Saturday night#SingaporeGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/U6FZ6hrwBJ

— Formula 1 (@F1) September 16, 2023

Source: F1TV