Red Bull's Max Verstappen claimed the 50th pole position of his career when he went fastest in qualifying under the lights at the Singapore Grand Prix on Saturday, repeating his heroics from the sprint qualifying session a day earlier.
Verstappen clocked one minute 31.373 seconds at the Marina Bay Street Circuit and will have Ferrari's Charles Leclerc alongside him on the front row, with the Monegasque driver just 0.054 seconds slower than the four-times champion.
Leclerc's teammate Lewis Hamilton was third fastest and championship leader Kimi Antonelli was fourth quickest for Mercedes.
"The margins are very close between us throughout all of qualifying, so of course, very happy to be on pole because this is the one that I wanted," Verstappen said ahead of his 250th race.
"The car has been pretty strong all weekend. Of course, I always think that you can be better, but it was enough for pole, so very happy with that."
Verstappen, who won a chaotic sprint in wet conditions earlier on Saturday, topped the timesheets despite gearbox issues in Q2.
Leclerc had struggled in Q1 and Q2 but found his groove in Q3 to put Ferrari on the front row right at the end of the session.
"Let's say that the good lap was on the right lap at the end, but I had a lot of struggles during this qualifying," Leclerc said.
"I had some weird things going on with the brakes, car pulling a bit under braking, which is not so nice on a track like here.
"But then in Q3, the lap was okay. I did some mistakes. I think there was a potential to be on pole today, but Max just did a better job."
With celebrity girlfriend Kim Kardashian watching on from the Ferrari garage, Hamilton topped Q1 and Q2 at a circuit where he has four victories, but the Briton could not reproduce his form in Q3.
"There's a real fine line with our car where it's over the edge or under the limit and finding that sweet spot is very, very difficult," said seven-times world champion Hamilton.
Source: Reuters
--Agencies
