Max Verstappen secured sprint pole position ahead of George Russell at the Singapore Grand Prix despite issues with engine settings provided by the FIA. Red Bull's victory in Malaysia last week marked their first win of the season, but this weekend they faced an investigation for Verstappen overtaking under yellow flags during qualifying. The glitch caused drivers to experience reduced power and affected overtake mode settings momentarily. Kimi Antonelli, leading the championship with 84 points, struggled with a Mercedes upgrade that underperformed in Malaysia, finishing seventh in sprint qualifying.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-09,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Story summary
Max Verstappen secured sprint pole position at the Singapore Grand Prix, beating Mercedes' George Russell by 0.12 seconds. This comes on the heels of Red Bull's first victory of the season in Malaysia last weekend, where Kimi Antonelli, the championship leader, finished seventh using a Mercedes upgrade that underperformed. The event was marred by technical issues with engine settings provided by the FIA, which affected car performance after a red flag due to an incident involving Sergio Perez's Cadillac in Malaysia five days prior. Drivers complained about reduced power despite these issues not affecting the final qualifying order.
Written for “Formula One Racing Issues” on 2026-10-09,
grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.
- Published
Red Bull's Max Verstappen beat Mercedes driver George Russell to sprint pole at the Singapore Grand Prix.
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Verstappen → publish → Prix
McLaren's Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris were fourth and fifth ahead of Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton, who went early in final qualifying and fell down the order from initially being second behind Leclerc.
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who → go → Leclerc
Championship leader Kimi Antonelli, using the Mercedes upgrade that underperformed in Malaysia while Russell is on the previous specification, could manage only seventh.
And there were further glitches with the engine settings provided by governing body the FIA five days after the formation laps in the wet in Malaysia saw cars reduced to crawling speed as a result of a software bug.
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cars → use → bug
The settings issue, which was combined with a glitch in the F1 timing system that delayed the start of second qualifying, did not affect the order.
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that → combine → order
However, it did involve the settings being different before and after a red flag caused by a crash for Sergio Perez's Cadillac and left drivers complaining of reduced power.
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settings → involve → power
It involved overtake mode - which allows an extra 0.5MJ of energy to be harvested - being switched on and off again in the space of 28 seconds.
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0.5MJ → involve → seconds
The FIA has been approached for comment but has not yet provided an explanation.
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FIA → approach → explanation
Verstappen's pole lap appeared to be further confirmation of Red Bull's resurgence after his dominant win in Malaysia but he faces an investigation for overtaking under yellow flags shown before the first session was stopped for the Perez incident.
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session → appear → incident
The four-time champion said he had not believed pole was possible before qualifying.
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pole → say → qualifying
"We have some difficulties with the car in ride, as we know," he said, "but at least when we went to the soft tyres (in the final session) it made the car a bit more stable in places where before you were a bit unsure.
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you → know → places
"I did not expect this but you take it, I'm happy for sure.
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I → expect → it
Qualifying tomorrow is still the main goal and for us the start is always a critical point but at least a positive end to our day."
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start → qualify → day
Russell's performance compared with that of Antonelli raises further doubts about the efficacy of the Mercedes upgrade introduced in Malaysia.
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performance → compare → Malaysia
It was their biggest car update since the Canadian Grand Prix in June but team boss Toto Wolff said at Sepang that it had appeared to take them backwards rather than forwards.
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it → say → them
Mercedes split the car spec here in Singapore in an attempt to better understand its performance but Antonelli ended the session 0.573secs behind Russell.
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Antonelli → split → Russell
The Briton said: "As a team there is still nothing telling us it isn't working but it's all driven by the stopwatch and, yeah, the stopwatch hasn't been great for the upgrade yet.
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stopwatch → say → upgrade
Antonelli, who leads the championship by 84 points going into the weekend, said: "Already FP1 I was struggling and there is still a lot to understand about this package.
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I → lead → package
Really the car is very difficult, very unpredictable, very difficult to put a lap together.
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car → put → lap
I was coming with high hopes but so far it has been very difficult.
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it → come → hopes
"It's going to be a difficult weekend unless we can pull something out tomorrow.
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we → go → something
Other than that it is going very tricky.
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it → go → that
I don't really see where we can find 0.7secs but you never know."
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you → see → 0.7secs
Wolff said before sprint qualifying: "The new car seems to be a little more tricky to drive.
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car → say → qualifying
Not saying it's necessarily slower, because there will be goodness in it, but maybe we haven't just found a way of putting it all together and tuning it.
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we → say → it
The Aporia
