Russell claims stunning Singapore pole

George Russell finished second at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix two weeks ago

Mercedes' George Russell stole the spotlight from the title contenders with a stunning pole position at the Singapore Grand Prix.

Russell's first pole since the Canadian Grand Prix in June, which he won, was achieved by 0.182 seconds from Red Bull's Max Verstappen.

McLaren's championship leader Oscar Piastri took third place, with his title rival and team-mate Lando Norris fifth, behind Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli.

Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc took sixth and seventh.

It was Mercedes' first pole in Singapore since Hamilton set his famous lap in 2018 and came as a surprise as Russell gatecrashed Norris and Piastri's fight.

The talk before the weekend was about whether Verstappen could beat McLaren and take a third consecutive win.

And while Verstappen does start the race ahead of both McLarens, and with a strong chance of bolstering his title credentials, it was Russell who came out on top.

He set the fastest lap on his first run in final qualifying, despite brushing the wall out of Turn 17, and then lowered it by 0.007secs on his second run.

Verstappen unhappy with Norris

Verstappen and Piastri both failed to improve on their final laps - and the Dutchman blamed that on Norris going slowly in front of him in the final sector.

The incident happened on the run to the final corner, where Norris was on the inside coming into the pits as Verstappen sought to complete his lap.

His engineer Gianpiero Lambiase said "you can thank your mate for that" - a reference to the friendship between Verstappen and Norris.

Verstappen, who looked angry about the situation in the immediate aftermath of qualifying, said: "Without that I think it would have been close for pole."

The four-time champion later added: "You need every kind of clean air that you can have on a Q3 lap, especially because you're fully on the limit with braking and everything. And I lost a bit of downforce with that. So I went straight on."

He had calmed down by the end of the official news conference, after which he told BBC Sport: "Of course these things happen, I just hope it wasn't deliberate."

Norris shrugged the incident off, saying "Ah, they always complain. They complain about everything. It's Red Bull. I was like three seconds ahead or something."

Asked whether his brush with the wall on his first lap was a kiss or a hit, Russell said: "A bit more of a snog.

"When you're on a really strong lap and you just touch the wall like that, you're a little bit tentative going into the next corner.

"You just don't know if you've got a puncture or the car's just going to spin out on you. And obviously it's a very fast corner, but all good in the end."

Russell, who crashed on Friday, added: "I had a difficult day yesterday for many reasons but it's good to come back and get a good result today. I knew there was potential in the car."

McLaren with work to do

Piastri said he simply did not have the pace to compete and was 0.366secs off pole.

He said he and McLaren had expected to be able to compete at the front.

"My first lap of Q3 felt reasonable," Piastri said. "It certainly didn't feel 0.4secs off. We just didn't have the pace tonight, which was a little bit of a surprise for us. We were relatively confident going in."

Piastri's performance, though, was a return to form for the Australian after a difficult race in Baku, where he made a series of mistakes, culminating in crashing on the first lap.

Starting two places in front of Norris, he has a good chance to extend his 25-point championship lead.

Norris, who was 0.062secs off Piastri, said he believed the team's relative struggles were caused by difficulties getting their front tyres up to the right operating temperature.

He said: "Everyone seems to be struggling with the front tyres this weekend.

"We know that's a weakness of our car. At times it's also my worst nightmare, understeer. Like we've seen in Vegas, whenever people struggle to get the front tyres in, Mercedes normally rides to the top, like they've done this weekend.

"We just couldn't get the front of the car to work this weekend."

Hamilton outqualified Leclerc for the first time since the British Grand Prix to underline an upturn in form in recent races, but was "ultimately disappointed" in the result.

He was fastest in the first session and said he felt Ferrari had mismanaged the rest of qualifying.

Hamilton said "Q1, the car and tyres were feeling food but Q2 run one was fairly decent but then we are the last in the queue often and losing a lot of temperature in the tyres and every time we do that we fall further and further back. It happens every single weekend.

"The guys on pole went out quicker with less waiting in the pit lane, it's an area we can improve on.

"Red Bull have had an upgrade, Mercedes have found something, and we haven't and we are fighting with what we have. Everyone's trying so hard but it's disappointing to be where we are when there was potential to be higher."

Williams, whose drivers Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz qualified 12th and 13th, have been reported to the stewards because their rear wings were found to exceed maximum dimensions. This is likely to lead to their disqualification from qualifying.

Top 10

1. George Russell (Mercedes)

2. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)

3. Oscar Piastri (McLaren)

4. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes)

5. Lando Norris (McLaren)

6. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari)

7. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)

8. Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls)

9. Oliver Bearman (Haas)

10. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)

• Full qualifying results