George Russell qualified second for the Singapore Sprint on Friday 9 October 2026, finishing 0.120 seconds behind Max Verstappen at Marina Bay. The FIA's final Sprint qualifying classification confirms the Mercedes driver's 1m 31.276s lap against Verstappen's 1m 31.156s.

Charles Leclerc was third, followed by McLaren pair Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris. Lewis Hamilton placed sixth for Ferrari, ahead of Kimi Antonelli. The result gives Russell the leading British qualifying position for Saturday's short race.

Mercedes comparison continues

Russell's performance came after reverting to Mercedes' older car specification, while Antonelli continued with the upgrades introduced at Sepang. Speaking to Formula 1 after the session, Russell said the older package was competitive but stopped short of concluding that the upgrade did not work.

Formula 1's session report records a difficult passage through SQ2: a lock-up compromised Russell's attempt, before a late improvement put him into the final segment and eliminated Franco Colapinto. He then split Verstappen and Leclerc with his final qualifying lap.

Yellow-flag decision resolved

Verstappen retained first place after the stewards investigated his pass on Hamilton under single yellow flags in SQ1. Their decision found a breach of the regulation but imposed no penalty.

The stewards said telemetry confirmed Verstappen had lifted and reduced speed. Hamilton had slowed substantially, creating a large closing-speed difference; they accepted that the resulting overtake did not warrant a sanction in those circumstances.

The qualifying classification is final. The separate FIA Sprint starting-grid document issued on 9 October is labelled provisional and places Verstappen and Russell on the front row. Saturday 10 October's Sprint is scheduled for 17:00 Singapore time, or 10:00 British Summer Time. Qualifying for Sunday's Grand Prix is a separate Saturday session.

Sources