Despite there being a new layout at the Marina Bay Circuit, Qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix was still going to be incredibly tough for the 20 Drivers involved!
Q1
In Qualifying 1; Valtteri Bottas, Oscar Piastri, Logan Sargeant, Zhou Guanyu, and Lance Stroll were the five slowest drivers. Valtteri didn’t quite have enough pace to get his Alfa Romeo into Q2 whilst Oscar Piastri got caught out by a Red Flag that brought the Session to a close (we’ll get to that late). Logan Sargeant had another tough day which saw him block Lance Stroll earlier in Q1 whilst Zhou Guanyu really didn’t have the pace in Quali. Lance Stroll, who was already on the backfoot from being impeded earlier in the session, lost his car in the final corner and suffered a big crash in the process. Luckily Lance was okay, but his car certainly wasn’t. Because of this disrupted ending, Alpha Tauri’s Yuki Tsunoda topped Q1 ahead of Sergio Perez.
Q2
In Qualifying 2; Max Verstappen, Pierre Gasly, Sergio Perez, Alex Albon, and Yuki Tsunoda all failed to make it into the Top 10 shootout. Red Bull, who’ve dominated the 2023 Season, looked a horrible car to drive today, and not even someone as talented as Max Verstappen was able to get the car into Q3 in a shocking, shocking moment. Pierre Gasly didn’t quite have enough pace in his Alpine whilst Sergio Perez spun in his Red Bull in a session to forget for both the Mexican and everyone in the team. Alex Albon was caught out by Perez’s spin so he wasn’t able to get a competitive lap time on the board whilst Yuki Tsunoda didn’t get a single lap on the board after being impeded in his first run (by Verstappen) before he had a moment on his second Flying lap. Carlos Sainz comfortably topped Q2 for Ferrari ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell.
Q3
In Qualifying 3, Carlos Sainz pulled out a mega 1:30.984 to take his second consecutive Pole Position. Carlos has been on it for a while now and it’s been really terrific to see. George Russell will line up alongside Carlos Sainz on the Front Row of the Grid tomorrow after a great lap whilst Charles Leclerc will start third. Lando Norris did a really good job to get his McLaren into P4 whilst Lewis Hamilton could only manage 5th, some 4 and a bit tenths behind his Mercedes teammate. Kevin Magnussen arguably pulled out the performance of the day to get his Haas into P6 whilst Fernando Alonso will be slightly disappointed with 7th. Esteban Ocon did a good job for Alpine as he qualified 8th whilst the other Haas of Nico Hulkenberg finished 9th, ahead of the Alpha Tauri of Liam Lawson who did a really good job to make it into Q3 in his third Qualifying Session in Formula 1.
Starting Grid for the 2023 Singapore Grand Prix and My Qualifying Grades
Carlos Sainz: 10
George Russell: 9
Charles Leclerc: 8
Lando Norris: 8
Lewis Hamilton: 5
Kevin Magnussen: 10
Fernando Alonso: 5
Esteban Ocon: 7
Nico Hulkenberg: 7
Liam Lawson: 8
Max Verstappen: 2
Pierre Gasly: 4
Sergio Perez: 1
Alex Albon: 4
Yuki Tsunoda: 4
Valtteri Bottas: 3
Oscar Piastri: 2
Logan Sargeant: 1
Zhou Guanyu: 1
Lance Stroll: 1
My Predictions for the 2023 Singapore Grand Prix
Max Verstappen (I just can’t vote/bet against him)
Carlos Sainz
Charles Leclerc
George Russell
Lando Norris
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