Singapore GP Sprint Qualifying: Max Verstappen keeps pole position from George Russell after avoiding yellow flags penalty

Fresh from finally winning Red Bull's first race of the season from their first pole last week in Malaysia, Verstappen needed just a single flying lap at the end of SQ3 to claim pole by just over a tenth of a second from Mercedes' George Russell.

But championship leader Kimi Antonelli was only seventh in the other Mercedes, the one featuring their problematic upgrade introduced last week in Malaysia. Russell, who will serve a grid penalty in Sunday's main Grand Prix, is running their older specification car and qualified half a second ahead of Antonelli in the newer one.

Verstappen's pole had appeared had risk for more than two hours after qualifying when he was investigated for passing Lewis Hamilton's Ferrari in SQ1 under yellow flags, which were out for debris on the track after Cadillac's Sergio Perez had hit the barriers.

After speaking to both drivers and analysing telemetry and in-car footage, stewards ruled that while Verstappen had breached the yellow-flag rules by passing Hamilton, they were "satisfied that the overtake was an unfortunate consequence of the significant closing speed differential" given the Red Bull was on a fast lap at the time and so no penalty was applied to the polesitter.

Ferrari had looked to be the team to beat heading into SQ3 and Charles Leclerc held provisional pole after his first lap but the Monegasque was shuffled back to third place in the end.

Hamilton had also looked a pole contender but ended up sixth behind the McLaren duo of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris in fourth and fifth respectively.

Liam Lawson was eighth for Racing Bulls ahead of the Red Bull of Isack Hadjar, who had his SQ3 lap time deleted. Alpine's Pierre Gasly was 10th.

Timing glitch and 'human error' confuse end to SQ1

The start of SQ2 had been delayed due to a timings issue that meant some of the final lap times of SQ1 were not initially registered before a definitive final order was confirmed and qualifying resumed.

The FIA also revealed there had been an unrelated incident due to "human error in Race Control" regarding the activation of Overtake Mode after the debris-triggered red flag in SQ1. It meant drivers experienced different durations of boost mode depending where they were on track during the final laps of the first knockout segment.

Williams driver Carlos Sainz qualified last and felt they had definitely been negatively impacted by the timing of the Overtake Mode being briefly available, while Racing Bulls' Arvid Lindblad made a surprise early exit in 17th place.

"During the first period of Sprint Qualifying there was a human error in Race Control unrelated to the timing issue also encountered in SQ1. This issue in question meant Overtake Mode was not available after the red flag period during SQ1," read an FIA statement.

"When it became apparent that Overtake Mode was not active after the restart, it was then activated for a period of 27 seconds before being deactivated 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 second and third periods of Sprint Qualifying were not affected."

Verstappen said pole was unexpected as Antonelli fears 'difficult weekend' in upgraded Mercedes

Verstappen had topped SQ1 but fell to fifth in the second knockout segment before a single run on the mandatory soft tyres at the end of SQ3 paid dividends.

"It's always close here in Singapore," said the Dutchman, who will be chasing his first grand prix win at the night-time event in 10 attempts on Sunday.

"And also your lap itself, you're pushing as hard as you think is possible, close to the walls in places.

"Once we bolted on the soft tyres, it felt like the car was coming alive a little bit more, but I did not expect this. Of course, [I'm] very happy to be first.

"I think the last few races we have been a lot stronger, but this track still highlights a few little weaknesses in the car, but we manage to drive with them as well as possible."

Russell finished 0.120s behind and was clearly the quicker Mercedes through qualifying despite his W17 being the one without the upgrades introduced at Sepang last week. Mercedes, on the initiation of Russell, are splitting their packages all weekend in a bid to get to the bottom of why the updates have not yet performed as expected.

"We have seemed competitive all day from the first laps in FP1," said Russell.

"We knew Max was fast and he went on a slightly different strategy in SQ3 doing just one lap. Who knows what was best? Pretty satisfied with P2."

But Antonelli, who leads Russell by 84 points in the Drivers' Championship, said he had been "struggling" in his updated W17 from practice onwards.

"Still a lot to understand about this package," said Antonelli. "The car is very difficult, very unpredictable, and very difficult to put a lap together.

"It's a shame because I was coming with high hopes, but so far it's been very difficult."

"I think it's going to be a difficult weekend unless we can pull something out tomorrow."

Saturday October 10 9am: Singapore GP Sprint build-up* 10am: Singapore GP SPRINT* 1pm: Singapore Grand Prix Qualifying build-up 2pm: SINGAPORE GP QUALIFYING* 4pm: Ted's Qualifying Notebook

Sunday October 11 11.30am: Grand Prix Sunday: Singapore GP build-up 1pm: THE SINGAPORE GRAND PRIX 3pm: Chequered Flag: Singapore GP reaction 4pm: Ted's Notebook

Formula 1 is in Singapore for the last Sprint weekend of the season with Sunday's Grand Prix at 1pm (build-up from 11.30am) live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW - no contract, cancel anytime