Author Archives: PressBox

Ferrari’s latest strategy missteps put Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc on the back foot after the team started both drivers on slick tyres in wet conditions at Sepang, Malaysia. Hamilton said he had argued for intermediates because the track was wet, and Ferrari’s call cost both drivers positions before they recovered to finish third and fourth. Hamilton said he was grateful for the podium and credited a late safety car for helping secure third place.

Hamilton said the tyre decision was “not good enough” and explained it was made collectively by Fred Vasseur, Matteo Togninalli, his engineer and himself. He defended Ferrari by saying McLaren made the same mistake and received less scrutiny, and said Ferrari had already discussed the error and would try to improve future decision-making. Hamilton also said the car should suit the Marina Bay street circuit, with qualifying set to be crucial during the season’s final Sprint weekend.

The tyre-choice debate carried into Singapore, where Hamilton said the run plan for SQ3 was his choice and admitted it was the wrong call. He said the single soft-tyre lap left him sixth in SQ3, 0.546 seconds behind Max Verstappen, after Ferrari had looked strong earlier when Hamilton and Leclerc finished 1-2 in SQ2. Hamilton said the car felt oversteery and lacked rear grip on the soft tyres, while he had felt comfortable on the mediums earlier. Leclerc qualified third, said Ferrari’s raw pace had dropped in recent races, and added that Singapore looked “pretty good for Ferrari on paper,” even if winning there would be difficult.

Max Verstappen took sprint pole in Singapore with a 1:31.156 lap, beating George Russell by 0.120 seconds and earning his first qualifying-session win of any kind at the Marina Bay Street Circuit. Charles Leclerc qualified third for Ferrari, followed by Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris in fourth and fifth for McLaren, Lewis Hamilton sixth after struggling for rear grip on his final soft-tyre lap, Kimi Antonelli seventh and Liam Lawson eighth.

Sergio Perez triggered the SQ1 red flag when he hit the wall, while Isack Hadjar was classified ninth after a track-limits deletion and Pierre Gasly completed the top 10. Mercedes split its car specifications for the weekend, with Russell in the older-spec car and Antonelli in the upgraded W17, and Verstappen was under investigation for an alleged yellow-flag infringement after overtaking Hamilton in SQ1.

McLaren said it had made progress in fixing the fuel-system problem that had hurt Lando Norris’s straight-line speed, after changing auxiliary components and fuel-system parts on his Mercedes power unit. The recurring fuel injection issue had also affected Oscar Piastri, though to a lesser extent, and Norris said it had hurt him in recent Grands Prix in Baku, Sepang and Bahrain. He said McLaren felt closer to a solution after Friday’s work in Singapore, but he would not know how effective the fix was until he got on track.

Norris said the problem may have cost him two or three grid places in qualifying, but he also said Singapore’s tight street circuit should reduce its effect because there are few long straights. In Sprint Qualifying, Norris briefly went quickest in SQ3 before Ferrari and Red Bull improved later to push him back down the order, and he ended up fifth, one place behind Piastri, who qualified fourth. Norris said he had not put together a good enough lap and had “no excuse” for it.

McLaren has also been trying to recapture the pace it showed earlier in the season, when Norris took pole positions and wins at Budapest, Zandvoort, Monza and Madrid. Piastri said the team had done “more or less what we could’ve done,” and said the car felt better on soft tires than on mediums at Marina Bay, which he described as “very tricky” in Sprint Qualifying.

An FIA error disrupted sprint qualifying at Formula 1’s Singapore Grand Prix on Friday, when Overtake Mode was left unavailable for 27 seconds during the final runs in SQ1 after a red flag caused by Sergio Perez breaking his front wing. The system should have been re-enabled as SQ1 resumed, but human error in Race Control meant some drivers on push laps received only normal race deployment instead of full energy and power, while others gained extra straight-line speed depending on where they were on track.

The FIA said the problem affected performance but did not appear to directly cause the SQ1 eliminations. Several drivers were knocked out in the session, including Esteban Ocon, Arvid Lindblad, Lance Stroll, Alex Albon, Sergio Perez, Valtteri Bottas and Carlos Sainz.

A separate timing-system issue then delayed the start of SQ2 because some lap times were unregistered. The FIA later said the timing problem had been resolved and the current timings were correct, and it said the second and third segments of sprint qualifying were not affected. The FIA set a restart time of 21:11 local time for SQ2.

Max Verstappen took sprint pole for the 2026 Singapore Grand Prix at Marina Bay Circuit, setting a 1:31.156 lap in SQ3. Red Bull had worked on a suspected ERS fault before qualifying, and Verstappen spent much of SQ3 in the garage while the team worked on the car issue. It was his first sprint pole of 2026 and the 11th pole of his career.

George Russell finished second, 0.120 seconds behind Verstappen, and will start the sprint from the front row in an older-spec Mercedes. Russell is due to serve an engine penalty for the grand prix. Charles Leclerc qualified third, Oscar Piastri fourth and Lando Norris fifth. Lewis Hamilton was sixth and Kimi Antonelli seventh.

Verstappen was also investigated for allegedly overtaking Hamilton under yellow flags at Turn 7. SQ1 was red-flagged after Sergio Perez hit the wall in his Cadillac, and Perez later qualified 20th. Isack Hadjar ended up ninth after a track-limits deletion, Pierre Gasly was 10th and Franco Colapinto 11th. Williams had its worst qualifying result of the season, with Alex Albon 19th and Carlos Sainz 22nd.

Max Verstappen took sprint pole for the Singapore Grand Prix, then came under investigation after qualifying for allegedly overtaking Lewis Hamilton under yellow flags. Verstappen posted a 1m31.156s lap to beat George Russell by 0.120 seconds and will start Saturday’s sprint from the front row alongside Russell. It was the first time Verstappen had led any qualifying session at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.

The alleged yellow-flag incident drew immediate attention when Hamilton reported Verstappen’s move over team radio. Verstappen later said on the radio that he believed he had cleared Hamilton before reaching the yellow-flag sector.

The session was also disrupted by timing and transponder issues, and Sergio Perez brought out an early red flag in SQ1 when he crashed at Turn 5. Kimi Antonelli qualified seventh, 0.693 seconds slower than Verstappen, while Carlos Sainz, Alex Albon, Valtteri Bottas, Lance Stroll and Arvid Lindblad were among the first-session eliminations. Williams had its worst qualifying result of the season, with Albon 19th and Sainz 22nd.

Formula 1 says true rain racing is likely becoming a thing of the past because modern cars throw up so much spray that visibility in wet conditions has become extremely poor. The problem has worsened as the cars have gained more downforce, and the FIA now weighs standing water, spray and visibility before deciding whether a wet race is safe to start, while also listening to drivers. Safety concerns sharpened after Jules Bianchi’s death in 2014 helped drive changes in the sport.

At Sepang, heavy standing water led organizers to hold the grid before the race started, and Lewis Hamilton said wet conditions are riskier even as they create the moments when drivers can make the biggest difference by relying on instinct and feeling the car. Hamilton said younger Formula 1 drivers are becoming “more and more cautious” about racing in the wet, while veteran drivers are more willing to push in extreme rain. He pointed to his wins in torrential rain at the 2007 Japanese Grand Prix and the 2008 British Grand Prix as examples of his success in those conditions.

Carlos Sainz said the FIA got the timing right when it decided to go racing, and said the rain gave him a better chance to do something. Isack Hadjar said the new power units and intermediate tires have made wet driving more difficult and unpredictable. Formula 1 said reducing electrical power or changing aerodynamics would not solve the visibility problem in the rain.