Max Verstappen comes into this weekend looking to become a two-time World Champion but the champion of qualifying this year has been Charles Leclerc. With Mercedes potentially in the mix, it was all to play for on a damp Singapore street track.
Q1
In Qualifying 1, Valtteri Bottas, Daniel Ricciardo, Esteban Ocon, Alex Albon and Nicholas Latifi were all eliminated. Alfa Romeo have struggled for pace all weekend and it continued in Qualifying. Maybe a surprise to some, Valtteri struggled more compared to Zhou and because of that, the 10-time grand prix saw himself get knocked out of the first qualifying session. It also didn’t take too long to give Daniel Ricciardo another one. It’s just unacceptable. 17th place in a car that should be in the top 10 is just shocking. The worst part of all of this was I wasn’t that surprised when he got knocked out. Another man who had a shocker was Esteban Ocon. He didn’t make the line in time and was out because of it. He also had brake problems which definitely didn’t help him. The back row of the grid belongs to Williams however, one driver did a whole lot better than the other. Considering Alex’s recent surgery, he did very well to get a solid lap time on the board and to beat his teammate by over 5 tenths showcases how well he did but also how poorly Nicholas Latifi. I have literally run out of positives to say about Nicholas Latifi when it comes to him driving an F1 car. Max Verstappen topped Q1 over Lewis Hamilton by a tenth of a second!
Q2
In Qualifying 2, George Russell, Lance Stroll, Mick Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel and Zhou Guanyu all failed to make it into the shootout. For George Russell, this was mightily disappointing. He just didn’t have the pace compared to his teammate and found himself missing out on the opportunity to go for a potential second ever Pole Position. Lance Stroll was one of 3 drivers who took a risk on the Slick Tyres. For me, this didn’t make much sense with Stroll, he was quick enough to get through on the inters so that was slightly disappointing. Mick Schumacher was just slow compared to his teammate but P13 isn’t the worst whilst Sebastian Vettel made a mistake on his final ever flying lap around the Singapore streets. He was on the slicks, but it clearly just wasn’t ready. Finally, Zhou Guanyu had no grip on his soft tyres and was unable to get through as a result of it. One thing I will say is it made a lot more sense for Zhou to take the gamble then it did Aston Martin. Charles Leclerc was the quickest driver, some 3 tenths faster than Lewis Hamilton who once again finished second.
Q3
Charles Leclerc managed to take his 10th pole position of the season in one of the most exciting qualifying’s in recent memory. Charles Leclerc 1.49.412 was just enough to grab pole as he beat Sergio Perez by only 22 thousandths of a second. I don’t think anyone predicted that to be the front row of the grid for tomorrow’s race. Lewis Hamilton lines up third, the first time he will start inside the top 3 all season. It was so fun to watch Lewis drive in the changeable conditions and he was only just over half a tenth away from pulling out an iconic pole position. Carlos Sainz lines up fourth and to be fair to the Spaniard, he was a lot closer to the pole lap than I originally though (+0.171). Fellow Spaniard Fernando Alonso starts just behind him, another brilliant lap from the double world champion and McLaren’s Lando Norris starts six. That’s where Ricciardo needs to be. Pierre Gasly put his Alpha Tauri into an incredible P7 whilst Max Verstappen could only manage 8th due to multiple issues that Verstappen was not happy about. K-Mag will start 9th, a truly brilliant effort from the Haas driver and Yuki Tsunoda finished 10th.
Starting Grid for the Singapore Grand Prix and my Qualifying grades
Charles Leclerc: 10
Sergio Perez: 9
Lewis Hamilton: 9
Carlos Sainz: 8
Fernando Alonso: 10
Lando Norris: 9
Pierre Gasly: 10
Max Verstappen: 5
Kevin Magnussen: 9
Yuki Tsunoda: 8
George Russell: 3
Lance Stroll: 6
Mick Schumacher: 5
Sebastian Vettel: 5
Zhou Guanyu: 3
Valtteri Bottas: 2
Daniel Ricciardo: 1
Esteban Ocon: 1
Alex Albon: 3
Nicholas Latifi: 1
My Predictions for the Singapore Grand Prix
Lewis Hamilton
Max Verstappen
Charles Leclerc
Sergio Perez
George Russell
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