Red Bull's Max Verstappen beat Mercedes driver George Russell to sprint pole at the Singapore Grand Prix, continuing the momentum from his and Red Bull's first victory of the season in Malaysia last weekend.
Verstappen was 0.12 seconds quicker than the Mercedes driver, with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc claiming the third position. McLaren's Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris were fourth and fifth, ahead of Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton.
Hamilton went early in final qualifying and fell down the order after initially sitting second behind Leclerc.
Kimi Antonelli, who is also the Championship leader, managed only seventh position. He was using the Mercedes upgrade that underperformed in Malaysia last week, while Russell is running the previous specification.
This is the 11th pole position secured by Max Verstappen.
Fresh Glitches With FIA Engine Settings
The session was also overshadowed by further problems with the engine settings provided by the governing body, the FIA, five days after the formation laps in the wet in Malaysia saw cars reduced to crawling speed because of a software bug.
The settings issue, combined with a glitch in the F1 timing system that delayed the start of second qualifying, did not affect the order.
However, the settings were different before and after a red flag caused by a crash for Sergio Perez's Cadillac, and drivers complained of reduced power.
The problem involved overtake mode, which allows an extra 0.5MJ of energy to be harvested, being switched on and off again within 28 seconds.
Verstappen Faces Investigation
Verstappen's pole lap appeared to be further confirmation of Red Bull's resurgence after his dominant win in Malaysia. He does, however, face an investigation for overtaking under yellow flags shown before the first session was stopped for the Perez incident.
The FIA has been approached for comment, but has not yet provided an explanation on the matter, as reported by BBC Sport.
Doubts Over Mercedes Upgrade
Russell's performance compared with Antonelli's raises further doubts about how effective the Mercedes upgrade really is.
It was the team's biggest car update since the Canadian Grand Prix in June, but team boss Toto Wolff said at Sepang that it appeared to have taken them backwards rather than forwards.
Mercedes split the car specification in Singapore in an attempt to better understand its performance, but Antonelli ended the session 0.573 seconds behind Russell.
Top 10
1. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) - 1:31.156
2. George Russell (Mercedes) +0.120
3. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +0.243
4. Oscar Piastri (McLaren) +0.298
5. Lando Norris (McLaren) +0.431
6. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) +0.546
7. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) +0.693
8. Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) +1.185
9. Isack Hadjar (Red Bull) lap time deleted
10. Pierre Gasly (Alpine) lap time deleted
Mercedes, Kimi Antonelli, who leads the championship by 84 points going into the weekend, noted: "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," as reported by BBC Sport.
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