Lando Norris was odds-on favourite for pole in Saturday's qualifying session for the Singapore GP and he duly delivered despite the disruption of a red flag in Q3.
The McLaren's time of 1:29.525s was two tenths quicker than Max Verstappen, whose Red Bull team mate Sergio Perez had earlier failed to make the final cut meaning he starts from P13 behind both Williams.
Lewis Hamilton and George Russell locked out the second row for Mercedes ahead of Oscar Piastri. But it was a disaster for Ferrari with Carlos Sainz crashing out, and Charles Leclerc's sole Q3 time deleted for exceeding track limits.
A dominating performance in final practice meant Lando Norris was hot favourite to take pole as qualifying got underway at Marina Bay on Saturday evening. The sun had set and the floodlights were in full effect, but the heat and humidity was still overwhelming.
Q1: Norris on top pursued by Verstappen and Leclerc as Ricciardo drops out
First out on soft tyres were the two Alpines together with both Saubers. Ferrari were also quick to make a move and McLaren weren't in the mood to hang around either. Charles Leclerc soon set the pace with a lap of 1:30.896s, seven tenths quicker than Red Bull's Sergio Perez before Norris took charge, but only by two tenths from Leclerc. Their respective team mates Oscar Piastri and Carlos Sainz fell into line behind with Lewis Hamilton fifth for Mercedes from Williams' Alex Albon.
After struggling on Friday, Max Verstappen was much happier and entered the session in P2. But it was early days, the track noticeably dusty and green after overnight rain meant track evolution came fast and furious. Leclerc reclaimed second from the Red Bull, Nico Hulkenberg then fifth by 0.003s from Sainz. Valtteri Bottas, Zhou Guanyu, Franco Colapinto, Pierre Gasly and Lance Stroll were the five at risk of elimination after the first runs.
McLaren felt confident remaining on their original used tyre while everyone else was on fresh sets for the second run. While Albon briefly shot to the top, Norris proved everything was under control as he improved to 1:30.002s. He was a quarter of a second quicker than Piastri's latest, until Verstappen split the McLarens,.
Mercedes had perked up with Hamilton fourth; Russell was briefly fifth but got rapidly bundled backwards by last minute improvements from the likes of Sainz, Colapinto, Hulkenberg, Fernando Alonso and Yuki Tsunoda. Russell still made the cut in 13th ahead of Kevin Magnussen and Esteban Ocon leaving Daniel Ricciardo missing out along with Stroll, Gasly, Bottas and Zhou.
Q2: Piastri takes point ahead of Verstappen and Leclerc but Perez misses the cut
With barely time to rehydrate, the drivers were soon back in action with Perez first out on new soft tyres followed by Verstappen. It was the Dutch driver who set the initial pace with a time of 1:30.371s only to have that time deleted for running very wide in the final corner. Norris also pushed too hard, sliding wide and lucky to survive, but he still had the pace in hand to go top despite losing seven tenths..
Those slips opened the door to allow Hamilton to sneak in front with Russell tucking into third ahead of Leclerc and Piastri. After having his initial lap deleted, Verstappen was now in the drop zone along with Alonso, Albon, Colapinto and Ocon but his next lap was fast and stayed in bounds as he went top by a quarter of a second from Norris.
Verstappen had been thrown off-sync by losing his original lap time. Now the rest of the field were back on track for their own follow-up runs with nearly everyone on fresh tyres as the track neared its peak for Q2. Piastri timed his run to snatch the top spot back by 0.04s while Norris was ordered to throttle back and conserve tyres for tomorrow meaning he finished three tenths behind the pacesetters in fifth. However no one was fooled into thinking he wasn't still the man to beat.
Albon just made it into the top ten on his run only for both him and Colapinto to be pushed out by a better laps from Sainz, Hulkenberg and Tsunoda, with Alonso also surviving on the bubble. The big shock was Perez finishing 13th ahead of Magnussen and Ocon meaning, he would sit out the final round.
Q3: Norris captures pole from Verstappen amid disaster for Leclerc and Sainz
It was time for the final top ten pole shoot-out. Hulkenberg led them out on used tyres and set a mediocre banker lap, and Piastri had just completed his own flier to take provisional pole with a time of 1:30.037s when the red flags were out. Sainz had gone into the wall at the final corner on his out lap, the back stepping out and Sainz overcorrecting in his bid to save it resulting in heavy damage to the rear of the Ferrari. Verstappen had another lap time deleted for setting it under yellow flags.
There was a delay as the Ferrari was retrieved and the debris cleaned up. Eight minutes remained on the clock when the session resumed, too tight for the usual two flying laps meaning it would be a one lap showdown, teams initially biding their time before heading out.
An unruffled Norris soon stamped his authority on the session with a time of 1:29.525s. Verstappen wasn't able to match it, but did claim a front row spot ahead of Mercedes drivers Hamilton and Russell which pushed Piastri and Hulkenberg back to to row three followed by Alonso and Tsunoda. But there was more bad news for Ferrari with Leclerc's lap time deleted for exceeding track limits, meaning he starts tomorrow's race alongside Sainz at the bottom of the top ten.
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
