Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz takes pole at Singapore Grand Prix but both Red Bulls out of top 10

SINGAPORE – Carlos Sainz has a chance to do the unthinkable. After 14 races of utter dominance by Red Bull and Max Verstappen, the runaway leaders finally look vulnerable and Sainz could be the man to end their record-breaking run in Formula One.

The Spaniard, who took pole at Monza two weeks ago before finishing third behind Verstappen and his teammate Sergio Perez, made it back-to-back P1s in qualifying as he topped the timesheets at the Singapore Grand Prix on Saturday.

He clocked 1min 30.984sec, just 0.072sec ahead of George Russell in his Mercedes while Charles Leclerc was only 0.079sec away from his Ferrari teammate. Lando Norris of McLaren was fourth, followed by seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes and Kevin Magnussen’s Haas in sixth.

Sainz, whose only win was at the 2022 British Grand Prix, said ending

Red Bull’s streak

would “feel amazing”. He added: “That’s the target to try and get the win tomorrow, I’m going to give it everything like I did in Monza and, hopefully, tomorrow is enough.

“I’m feeling very good, driving probably the best since I’ve been a Ferrari driver (he joined in 2021), finally extracting my full potential and the best performance out of the car. That’s going to give me a lot of confidence moving forward.”

Leclerc will be as determined to triumph here. He took pole at the last two Singapore races in 2019 and 2022 but finished second on both occasions.

He said: “The team has done an incredible job but we’ve always done well in Singapore, so we shouldn’t get carried away.”

Nine of the 13 previous night races have been won from the front row of the grid. Eight were from pole, with Perez starting second before claiming victory here 12 months ago.

Despite that record, both Ferrari drivers were wary of the threat posed by Russell and Hamilton, citing the Mercedes’ superior race pace. Russell said: “I feel really confident in the car. We have another set of medium tyres tomorrow, which nobody around us has had, so to get to Q3 and be on the front row with a strategic advantage tomorrow is an exciting place to be.

“The track is different this year. The tyre degradation on Friday was pretty bad, so it’s going to be close between a one- and a two-stop.

“With our mediums, we can put Ferrari in a difficult position and force them into an error and try and gain the upper hand, so that’s what we’re looking for.”

It was an evening to forget, however, for Red Bull at the Marina Bay street circuit. The team are unbeaten this campaign but saw their drivers, two-time world champion Verstappen and

2022 Singapore winner Perez,

finish 11th and 13th respectively.

It was the first time since the 2018 Russian Grand Prix that Red Bull have failed to have any representatives in Q3.

“I don’t know if you saw that, but that was shocking, absolutely shocking experience,” Verstappen expressed on team radio, while Perez’s reaction was simply filled with a string of expletives.

The closing seconds of Q1 had been red flagged after

Lance Stroll lost control of his Aston Martin

and slammed it into the wall near the final corner. The Canadian told his team on the radio he was okay and eventually climbed out of the wrecked car. He was taken to the medical centre for a check-up.