Verstappen Keeps Singapore Sprint Pole After FIA Review

Max Verstappen retained pole position for the Singapore Sprint after FIA stewards reviewed a yellow-flag incident, while Ferrari raised concerns over the decision. The same qualifying session also featured an overtake mode error that affected drivers at the Marina Bay event.

According to Sports Yahoo, Verstappen’s qualifying lap put him 0.120 seconds ahead of George Russell, with Charles Leclerc another tenth behind in third. Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris followed in fourth and fifth, while Lewis Hamilton started sixth.

The FIA stewards found that Verstappen had technically breached yellow-flag regulations by passing Hamilton, but decided not to impose a penalty. The governing body considered the move an unintended result of a large speed difference between the cars.

Frederic Vasseur, Ferrari team principal, expected a grid penalty after the incident involving Verstappen and Hamilton. He told Canal+ that the standard guideline would normally apply.

"He overtook under yellow flags, so I think he'll get a five-place grid penalty," said Frederic Vasseur, Ferrari team principal.

The stewards did not follow that outcome, allowing Verstappen to keep Sprint pole. A five-place penalty would have moved Russell to pole and elevated Ferrari drivers and others on the grid.

FIA also addressed a separate overtake mode issue during Singapore Sprint qualifying. The governing body said the problem came from human error in race control after a red-flag restart.

"When it became apparent that overtake mode was not active after the restart, it was then activated for a period of 27 seconds before being deactivated again," said FIA in its statement.

The incident affected Carlos Sainz, who was eliminated in SQ1 in 22nd position. The Williams driver criticized the handling of the issue after a similar software problem occurred during the previous race weekend in Malaysia.

"A bit confused why the sport keeps doing different things depending on who is out in Q1 or who is out in lap one," said Carlos Sainz, Williams driver.

Sainz said he believed the qualifying session did not provide equal conditions for all competitors. He referred to the FIA response after the latest technical problem and the earlier Malaysia incident.

"There was another software issue and we were on the bad end of it, and for whatever reason, the FIA, like in Malaysia, again didn't decide to do sporting equity and were happy to do half of the quali with cars with higher power than the other half of the cars," said Carlos Sainz, Williams driver.

Vasseur also assessed Ferrari’s qualifying performance after the team showed stronger pace on medium tyres than soft tyres. He said the session was competitive but highlighted the difference between tyre compounds.

"Overall, it was quite a good qualifying. We were in the fight, it was really tight. We were a little more competitive on the medium tyres than on the softs.

But yes, it's also preparation for Saturday. So yes, it's not bad," said Frederic Vasseur, Ferrari team principal.