pole

Hamilton said his pole, on his 43rd start for Ferrari, was “one of the greatest feelings”.

It is not the first time he has qualified fastest for Ferrari – that was when he took sprint pole at the Chinese Grand Prix last year, in only his second race for the team.

But that was followed by a difficult debut season, when he looked a shadow of his former self, and was pretty much taken to the cleaners by Leclerc.

Hamilton’s record is such that his performances last year left many perplexed – not least himself. He was consistently down on himself, even saying at one low point in the summer of 2025 that he was “just useless” and suggesting Ferrari should change drivers.

As this followed a similarly challenging final year for Mercedes, it inevitably led to questions about his future, whether age was catching up with him. After all, he had no explanations for his performances himself.

His form has improved this year, with a car that he finds much more to his liking, and he has a number of times referenced these perfectly valid questions. He did so again on Saturday.

“It’s impossible to rank 105 pole positions,” he said. “They have all been unique in their own way. It feels more special in this period where they’re not every week and it’s the first one with Ferrari in red.

“I’ve now had pole with three different teams, which is pretty phenomenal. And all the questions people had about whether a 40-year-old has still got it, there you go.”

The battle between Hamilton and Leclerc has been much more even this year.

Hamilton leads his team-mate by eight points in the championship and in qualifying there is nothing to choose between them – it is now 12-10 in their head-to-head and Leclerc is ahead on average pace by just 0.037secs, when the gap was 0.15secs last year.

“I have been fortunate to have many great experiences with Mercedes over the years,” said Hamilton. “We have had sprint pole but I have been really dreaming and eyeing for that first pole with the team.

“Charles is very, very quick over one lap. He has had an engineer he has worked with for years. It’s an environment he is very aware of and used to.

“I am still settling in and learning, with new engineers this year. We have really found a good rapport and are really doing a great job. There is lots more to come, we just have to keep on at it, but what an amazing feeling to get that first.”

Hamilton goes into the race with less knowledge than his rivals, a breakdown in second practice meaning he was not able to do his race-simulation run.

“It will will be a massive challenge to find the right balance but I am hopeful, it will be challenging and tough,” he said.

Kimi Antonelli took pole position for the United States Grand Prix on the weekend on which he can potentially clinch his first world title.

The Mercedes driver beat Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by 0.179 seconds, with the Dutchman’s team-mate Isack Hadjar third ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton.

Antonelli whooped with delight as he took his first pole position since the Belgian Grand Prix in July and said: “It feels good to be back.”

The 20-year-old Italian will become world champion on Sunday if he wins the race in Austin with Hamilton lower than fourth and Russell lower than eighth.

Hamilton is already below that position having qualified fifth, while Russell will start sixth ahead of the McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.

Antonelli’s pole came as something of a surprise after the Ferraris had topped all three practice sessions and Verstappen had looked strong through the second part of qualifying.

“I wasn’t expecting that,” said Antonelli’s engineer Peter Bonnington, emphasising that his charge’s first lap in final qualifying was good enough for pole.

Verstappen had been fourth quickest in Q2 despite being on used tyres but he found his car lacked the requisite grip in the final session.

Antonelli said: “We got pole so we will try to win tomorrow but Max has been very quick and Isack did an incredible job so it is not going to be easy.

“We try to get a good start and hopefully lead into Turn One and try to set the pace, even though it’s going to be very tight.”

Verstappen said: “Q3 was not good, Q1, Q2 were nice but for whatever reason in run one and two just didn’t have a nice balance. No mistakes, just not enough grip. But if it’s still a P2, I take it.”

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took his second pole position in a week by beating the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton in qualifying at the Singapore Grand Prix.

Verstappen’s first lap in final qualifying was enough to take pole, his time fending off a second lap from Leclerc that was 0.054 seconds off pole.

Hamilton was closest to Verstappen after the first runs but was unable to improve on his second run.

In fact, most of the front runners struggled to improve on their second runs, as Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli took fourth on the grid, from McLaren’s Lando Norris.

Antonelli’s team-mate George Russell was sixth fastest but will drop to the back of the grid with a penalty for using too many engine parts.

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri was the only driver in the top four teams other than Leclerc to improve on his second run but could do no better than qualify seventh.

Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and the Racing Bulls of Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad completed the top 10.

More to follow

Verstappen’s pole lap appeared to be further confirmation of Red Bull’s resurgence after his dominant win in Malaysia but he faces an investigation for overtaking under yellow flags shown before the first session was stopped for the Perez incident.

The four-time champion said he had not believed pole was possible before qualifying.

“We have some difficulties with the car in ride, as we know,” he said, “but at least when we went to the soft tyres (in the final session), it made the car a bit more stable in places where before you were a bit unsure.

“I did not expect this but you take it, I’m happy for sure. Qualifying tomorrow is still the main goal and for us the start is always a critical point but at least a positive end to our day.”

Russell’s performance compared with that of Antonelli raises further doubts about the efficacy of the Mercedes upgrade introduced in Malaysia.

It was their biggest car update since the Canadian Grand Prix in May but team boss Toto Wolff said at Sepang that it had appeared to take them backwards rather than forwards.

Mercedes split the car spec here in Singapore in an attempt to better understand its performance but Antonelli ended the session 0.573secs behind Russell.

The Briton said: “As a team there is still nothing telling us it isn’t working but it’s all driven by the stopwatch and, yeah, the stopwatch hasn’t been great for the upgrade yet. Maybe tomorrow’s a different day.”

Antonelli, who leads the championship by 84 points going into the weekend, said: “Already FP1 I was struggling and there is still a lot to understand about this package. Really the car is very difficult, very unpredictable, very difficult to put a lap together. It’s a shame. I was coming with high hopes but so far it has been very difficult.

“It’s going to be a difficult weekend unless we can pull something out tomorrow. Other than that it is going very tricky. I don’t really see where we can find 0.7secs but you never know.”

Wolff said before sprint qualifying: “The new car seems to be a little more tricky to drive. Not saying it’s necessarily slower, because there will be goodness in it, but maybe we haven’t just found a way of putting it all together and tuning it. The older car is a bit more stable, grippy, but that is really just one data point.”

Leclerc was 0.243secs off pole, and ruing what he said was Ferrari “losing a little bit of our raw performance” in the past three or four races.

However, he added: “Still I feel there is potential in the car and maybe tomorrow we can be there or thereabouts in fighting for pole.”

Hamilton said: “We did a slightly different run plan to the others. It was my choice, but I think we got that wrong. But ultimately, the car was very oversteery on that lap. If the rears [tyres] are not ready or they are overheating, it’s difficult to say. But it was very snappy and oversteery in the lap overall.”