George Russell delivered a sensational qualifying performance to claim pole position for the 2025 F1 Singapore Grand Prix, setting a new track record with a blistering 1:29.158. It marks his second pole of the season, following his earlier success in Montreal.
After a crash in FP2, the Mercedes driver produced two exceptional laps in Q3 of qualifying, both good enough for pole. “Yeah. It’s been a challenging weekend, to be fair. I’ve not been comfortable with the car, not been comfortable with myself, and it just sort of all came towards me in Q3, to be honest, even the end of Q2. That was my first good lap of the weekend and probably the first lap where I felt semi-reasonable, but I knew I had a bit of margin to go further,” he explained. “And then my lap one in Q3 was really strong and then obviously matched it on the second lap. So pretty pleased with that.”
The stewards also confirmed there is no further action following Russell’s Q1 investigation for failing to slow under yellow flags.
Finding form at the right time
Despite Mercedes showing a competitive pace throughout the weekend and season, Russell admitted that finding the right balance had been far from easy.
“I don’t know, to be honest. I mean, sometimes some weekends you just hit the ground running a bit sooner. Other times you don’t. I’ve found this weekend quite strange,” he said. “The grip has been really high from the tarman, but the cars have been sliding quite a lot. It feels a bit reminiscent of Miami, where it’s really high grip, but the car is sliding. And I just didn’t have much confidence in myself, and obviously the crash yesterday set me back again. But I always sort of remind myself, it doesn’t matter what happens on Friday. It’s Q3 when it counts.”
During his first Q3 attempt, he brushed the wall at Turn 17 with the rear of the car. “Yeah. A bit more of a snog… in between the two,” he joked. “So, no, it wasn’t too bad. And it’s always 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 because you just don’t know if you’ve got a puncture or if the car is just going to spin out on you. And obviously, it’s a very fast corner, but all good in the end.”
Eyes on victory after 2023 heartbreak
With ten of the last fifteen races in Singapore being won from pole, Russell has a strong chance of converting Saturday’s success into victory, though he remains cautious.
When asked about what would be the biggest challenge throughout the 62 laps of racing, Russell replied, “Probably these two next to me, to be honest,” referring to Verstappen and Piastri alongside him on the front two rows. “We know the McLarens are usually exceptionally good on their tyres in the hot conditions. I think we’ve all been a little bit surprised at their sort of lack of pace this weekend. We were probably all expecting them to run away with it, and we certainly didn’t anticipate being in the fight for pole position here. So, not sure going into tomorrow. I’m the only driver who hasn’t done a long run, so that doesn’t play into my favour. But, of course, overtaking is challenging here. Races have been a bit of a one-stop recently, but now with the 80 km/h speed limit in the pit lane, it probably brings it closer to a two now.”
When reminded of his 2023 crash that had caused his chance of victory in Singapore to disappear, Russell reflected on his progress since then, noting the importance of focus and maturity.
“Yeah. Thanks for reminding me! I’m a very different driver today than I was a couple of years ago. Yesterday was my first crash in over a year. But this season, I’m sort of more within myself. I know the limits better. But the fact is, on a street circuit, you’ve only got to have a 1% lapse of concentration,” he said. “My mistake two years ago, it wasn’t a big mistake. It was a mistake of five centimetres, but the consequence was massive. And that’s the thing on a street circuit. You can’t afford one single corner not to be 100% focused. But that’s the greatness of it too.”
