Charles Leclerc scored his ninth pole position of the season in a wet/dry qualifying session for Formula 1’s Singapore Grand Prix.
The session started in damp conditions following heavy rain earlier in the day, with the front-runners only switching to slicks when Q3 began, having used Intermediates through Q1 and Q2.
Lewis Hamilton led the early running in the pole position shootout before Fernando Alonso spent time on top, until Leclerc moved to the front.
READ MORE: Singapore Grand Prix – Qualifying Results
Leclerc’s time of 1:49.412s proved to be just 0.024s clear of Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, while Hamilton wound up a mere 0.052s down on Leclerc at the conclusion of the session.
Runaway title leader Max Verstappen was only eighth amid a confusing end to his session.
Verstappen backed off of his penultimate lap and on his final push lap after the chequered flag was nine-tenths up on Leclerc’s benchmark when he crossed the second sector.
However through the final sector he was informed to abort the lap, prompting a furious response from Verstappen, who duly obliged.
It is suspected that Red Bull feared it would be unable to provide the required fuel sample from Verstappen’s car had he completed the lap.
Carlos Sainz was fourth for Ferrari, with Alonso winding up in fifth place, in front of McLaren’s Lando Norris.
AlphaTauri secured a double Q3 appearance and finished with Pierre Gasly seventh while Yuki Tsunoda rounded out the top 10.
Kevin Magnussen finished in ninth position for Haas.
George Russell suffered a surprise exit in Q2 as he wound up only 11th in the session.
Russell fell just 0.006s shy of making the top 10 but was over a second down on team-mate Hamilton in the session.
Aston Martin gambled on slicks in the closing stages of Q2 but it failed to propel either Lance Stroll or Sebastian Vettel up the order.
Stroll wound up 12th, with Vettel running deep into Turn 6 and winding up 14th, the pair classifying either side of Haas’ Mick Schumacher.
Zhou Guanyu made Q2 but finished as the slowest runner while Valtteri Bottas’ miserable run continued as he was eliminated from Q1.
Daniel Ricciardo also lasted just one session as he wound up 17th. Ricciardo was only two places and three tenths of a second behind Norris in the session but the Australian was on the wrong side of the cut-off.
Esteban Ocon had a difficult session and finished 18th amid complaints over his brakes, while Williams finished adrift of the field at the back.
The returning Alexander Albon and outgoing racer Nicholas Latifi will form the back row of the grid.
Sunday’s 61-lap Singapore Grand Prix is scheduled for 20:00 local time
