Verstappen takes sprint pole at Singapore Grand Prix

Red Bull's Max Verstappen has taken pole position for the Singapore Grand Prix sprint race on Friday, pipping Mercedes driver George Russell, who will join him on the front row under the lights at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.

Verstappen, who had never previously taken pole or won a race in Singapore, set the fastest time of one minute 31.156 seconds, 0.120 seconds quicker than Russell.

"It's closer in Singapore. Your lap itself, you're pushing as hard as you think is possible, close to the walls in places," Verstappen said.

"Once we bolted on the soft tyres, it felt like the car was coming alive a little bit more. But I did not expect this, so, of course, very happy to be first.

"The last few races we've been a lot stronger, but of course this track still highlights a few little weaknesses in the car. But we managed to drive with them as well as possible."

However, Verstappen was also under investigation by the stewards for overtaking Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton under yellow flags in SQ1.

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc was third fastest while Mercedes' championship leader Kimi Antonelli, who leads Russell by 84 points, was only seventh quickest.

RUSSELL SATISFIED WITH P2

Russell was fastest in the only practice session earlier on Friday but his power unit penalty will not affect his position on the grid for Saturday's sprint.

However, the FIA handed the Briton a 40-place grid penalty for Sunday after he incurred a 10-place penalty for each of four additional elements, effectively consigning him to the back of the pack.

"We've been competitive all day, from the first laps in FP1. We obviously topped the timesheets there," Russell said.

"We knew Max was fast and he went on a slightly different strategy from us in Q3, just doing the one lap. Who knows what was best, but pretty satisfied with the P2.

"It's going to be very challenging. The grip left to right here is a big difference. The drivers on the pole side last year had a big advantage, so it's probably going to be trying to maintain P2. I know Max is under investigation for the yellow, so let's see."

FIRST SESSION RED-FLAGGED

The first sprint qualifying session was red flagged when Cadillac's Sergio Perez crashed into a barrier and attempted to nurse his car back into the pits, leaving debris from his front wing on the track which needed to be removed by track marshals.

That effectively gave drivers one lap to advance to SQ2 and Verstappen was one of the last drivers to set a lap time, with the Dutchman topping the timesheets.

A glitch in the systems delayed the start of SQ2, with the FIA saying some lap times had not been registered. But the FIA added that the issue had been resolved and the "current timings are considered correct."

Moreover, "Overtake Mode" was not available after the red flag period during SQ1. It was then activated for a period of 27 seconds before being deactivated again.

"The FIA acknowledges that this unfortunate human error had an impact on the performance of certain cars based on the timing of their run and their position around the lap," it said.

"The second and third periods of Sprint Qualifying were not affected."

A software bug had also caused chaos last weekend, with cars slowing to a crawl on two formation laps held after heavy rain at Sepang had forced the original start of the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia to be aborted.