George Russell secured pole position for the 16th running of the Singapore Grand Prix.

It was the Mercedes driver's seventh career pole, his second this year, following on from Montreal, where he went on to win the race. Russell's best time was a 1'29"158, set on his second Q3 run, seven thousandths quicker than his earlier lap that would have also been good enough for pole. This is Mercedes' fourth Singapore pole, its first since 2018 and its 143rd in total.

Starting alongside him on the front row will be Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen (1'29 "340) who yet again just missed out on the number one slot that still eludes him at this track. The second row sees Oscar Piastri third for McLaren in 1'29"524 and Andrea Kimi Antonelli (1'29"537) fourth in the other Mercedes. The Pirelli Pole Position Awards was presented to Russell by Alan Walker. The Norwegian DJ and producer achieved worldwide success in 2015 with his track "Faded." His electronic music tracks have been streamed over a hundred billion times with nearly 36 billion views on YouTube. After the Walkerworld tour in Europe and North America, the artist performed today in Singapore just before the Grand Prix qualifying session.

In the third free practice session the teams worked mainly on preparing for qualifying, even if some drivers also did several longer runs to get some feedback on tyre behaviour in a race situation. Seven teams used one set of Medium and one of Soft with both drivers. That included Aston Martin who also did their usual scrubbing-in lap on a set of Hards. Mercedes and Williams only ran the Soft compound. In qualifying red was the only colour seen on track, with the C5 doing all the work.

Mario Isola: "A very closely contested qualifying session, with Mercedes particularly brilliant taking a possibly surprising but absolutely well-deserved pole with Russell. It was interesting to see a remarkable balance across all three segments of qualifying: 15 drivers within eight-tenths in Q1, ten within less than half a second in Q2, and the top ten all in under 1'30" in Q3. Russell's pole was a record, 367 thousandths quicker than last year although in line with our pre-event simulations. Today the track improved significantly during FP3 and at the start of qualifying, then stabilised in the final stages. The C5 offered a good level of performance even on the second or third timed lap, and even more so on an actual second attempt.

"We know how crucial qualifying is on this circuit, as seen from the fact that in the fifteen races held here so far, the winner has started from pole on all but three occasions. Tomorrow we will most likely see a one-stop race, although the increase in pit-lane speed, from 60 to 80 km/h, makes a two-stop slightly more appealing, especially if there was to be a safety car or the opening of a clean-air window during the race.

"I believe all three compounds could be used tomorrow evening. Everyone has one set of Mediums and one of Hards, but the Soft could also play a role, either at the start or at the end of the race. The greater grip offered by the C5 could be exploited at the start to gain vital positions on a track where overtaking is always difficult, although now less so than in the past."

Check out our Saturday gallery from Marina Bay here.