Russell takes surprise Singapore pole over Verstappen

SINGAPORE: Mercedes’ George Russell stole the spotlight from the title contenders with a stunning pole position at the Singapore Grand Prix.

Russell's first pole since the Canadian Grand Prix in June, which he won, was achieved by 0.182 seconds from Red Bull's Max Verstappen.

McLaren's championship leader Oscar Piastri took third place, with his title rival and team-mate Lando Norris fifth, behind Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli.

Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc took sixth and seventh.

It was Mercedes' first pole in Singapore since Hamilton set his famous lap in 2018, and came as a surprise as Russell gatecrashed Norris and Piastri's fight.

The talk before the weekend was about whether Verstappen could beat McLaren and take a third consecutive win.

And while Verstappen does start the race ahead of both McLarens, and with a strong chance of bolstering his title credentials, it was Russell who came out on top.

He set the fastest lap on his first run in final qualifying, despite brushing the wall out of Turn 17, and then lowered it by 0.007secs on his second run.

Verstappen and Piastri both failed to improve on their final laps - and the Dutchman blamed that on Norris going slowly in front of him in the final sector.

The incident happened on the run to the final corner, where Norris was on the inside coming into the pits as Verstappen sought to complete his lap.

His engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, said: "You can thank your mate for that," a reference to the friendship between Verstappen and Norris.

Verstappen, who looked angry about the situation in the immediate aftermath of qualifying, said: "Without that, I think it would have been close for pole."

Russell said, "I had a difficult day yesterday for many reasons, but it's good to come back and get a good result today. I knew there was potential in the car."

Piastri said he simply did not have the pace to compete and was 0.366secs off pole.