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LANDO NORRIS claimed pole position for the Singapore Grand Prix for McLaren, delivering under immense pressure at the Marina Bay circuit.
With an inch-perfect lap of the challenging street circuit, he beat Max Verstappen into second, with the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton in third, his teammate, George Russell, in fourth and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in fifth.
Norris was pleased with the pole, but for Verstappen, this was a huge result at a circuit where he and Red Bull expected to struggle and drop a hatful of points to his title rival.
Instead, he wrestled the maximum from his car and in claiming second has a shot at a win in the only race on the calendar he has yet to take victory but more importantly, at potentially minimising how much Norris eats into his 59-point lead in the world championship.
At the opening of Q3, there was little to choose between the front three teams — McLaren, Mercedes, Ferrari — and Verstappen in the Red Bull as Piastri opened the running for the final hot laps.
The Australian made a good run but was swiftly eclipsed by Verstappen, however, Carlos Sainz went off at the final corner, spinning into the barriers just as he was starting his lap, losing the rear on what appeared to be cold tyres. The session was stopped and Verstappen’s lap time deleted because he completed it under waved double yellow flags. Norris had been on a superb lap at the time but had to give it up.
With eight minutes left on the clock when the track went live again, the teams had opted not to try to force two hot laps, making for a decisive one-lap sudden-death run for the nine remaining drivers in the final minutes.
As the tension ratcheted up, with four minutes left, the cars began to emerge, Piastri and Norris heading out first, a bold move with the track still evolving in adding grip.
Piastri improved his time but Norris was quicker through the middle and final sectors with a superb lap of 1min 29.525sec.
Verstappen followed with a fine run to claim second but was still two-tenths down. Hamilton delivered a huge lap to take third just in front of Russell, while Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc had his lap deleted going wide at turn two to finish in ninth. This is Norris’ fifth pole this season and his fourth from six races, while McLaren have not taken pole or won in Singapore since Hamilton claimed both in 2009.
It is the sixth of his career and his first in Singapore.
For McLaren, after their recent form, including taking the lead of the constructors’ championship by 20 points from Red Bull, it was once more indicative of how strong their car now is at a range of tracks.
Nico Hülkenberg was sixth for Haas, Fernando Alonso seventh for Aston Martin, Yuki Tsunoda eighth for RB, while Sainz was 10th after his crash. Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto were in 11th and 12th for Williams, Sergio Pérez 13th for Red Bull, Kevin Magnussen 14th for Haas and Esteban Ocon 15th for Alpine. Daniel Ricciardo was 16th for RB, Lance Stroll 17th for Aston Martin, Pierre Gasly 18th for Alpine, with Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu 19th and 20th for Sauber. — theguardian.com
Online Reporter