Verstappen escapes punishment, keeps pole after controversial overtake
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen snatched pole position for the sprint race in Singapore after a hectic qualifying session on Saturday (AEDT) that was marred by race control mistakes.
Verstappen also controversially avoided being penalised by the stewards for a yellow-flag infringement in the early moments of sprint qualifying, keeping his pole to line up on the front row with George Russell.
Verstappen avoided penalty for a yellow-flag infringement. Rudy Carezzevoli
Sprint qualifying was overshadowed when the cars’ settings were wrongly changed by race control, the mistake blamed for eliminating some drivers from the session early.
Cars were down on power for several minutes in the first part of the qualifying session because overtake mode – an electrical power boost activated by the drivers – was disabled.
The FIA attributed blame to “a human error in race control” which meant some cars were blocked from using this extra boost in power, while others benefited after the session was briefly red-flagged when Cadillac’s Sergio Perez hit the wall.
The setting was then switched back on for 27 seconds, and switched off again.
“The FIA acknowledges that this unfortunate human error had an impact on the performance of certain cars based on the timing of their run and their position around the lap,” the governing body said.
Verstappen went fastest under the Singapore lights by 0.120 seconds from Russell, whose strategy of all-out attack this week leaves him starting the sprint five places ahead of Mercedes teammate and championship leader Kimi Antonelli.
“I did not expect this. Very happy to be first,” Verstappen said.
“The last few races we have been a lot stronger but this track still highlights a few weaknesses in the car. We have tried to drive with them as much as possible.”
Replays showed Verstappen overtook the Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton under yellow flags, Hamilton immediately pointing out the infringement over radio.
But although the Dutchman was summoned by the stewards in an investigation into whether he overtook under yellow flags, he was not penalised.
He avoided any consequence due to the stewards’ decision that it was an “unfortunate consequence” of their differing closing speeds, leaving him to keep sprint pole.
Charles Leclerc was third, and McLaren teammates Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris fourth and fifth respectively.
After his first victory in 2026 at last week’s Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, Verstappen now has an advantage for extra championship points in the sprint race.
Starting on pole is extra valuable in Singapore because overtaking is difficult on the tight street circuit.
Piastri will start fourth for the sprint race. Joe Portlock
Other drivers in the paddock were furious with the race control blunder, as Williams’ Carlos Sainz criticised the FIA after the mistake slowed down qualifying cars.
He said the glitch was reminiscent of software problems at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.
The issue comes five days after cars crawled to a halt in the rain in Malaysia, delaying the race start, again due to a software mistake which governs the 2026 cars’ electrical power.
Overtake mode helped drivers who were setting a lap time at the end of the first session while Sainz was eliminated.
“Half of the cars did the lap with half a second quicker engine than the others. There was another software issue with the cars this time around and we were on the bad end of it,” Sainz admitted.
“For whatever reason, the FIA, like in Malaysia, didn’t decide to do sporting equity and were happy to do half of the cars in qualifying with higher power than the other half of the cars.
"So a bit confused why the sport keeps doing different things depending on who is out in Q1 or who is out in lap one."
The sprint race in Singapore will begin on Saturday night at 8pm (AEDT).
