Selamat, MiniFans! Night is upon us in Singapore’s streets after a few sessions of free practice that haven’t quite set the tone for what to expect. The narrow circuit will force a ton of time on track for the drivers, in order for them to make sure they can set their laps when needed without traffic, and an even more careful management from the strategy sections of their teams with the same goals: giving the driver the best opportunity possible to score a low time.
Everyone was ready and waiting in the queue before Q1 had even started. The track may be long, but it’s still narrow and traffic can make or break your grip position for Sunday. As usual, there were still a few stragglers waiting for a while in their garages, including Mercedes, Haas and Alonso, who took their sweet time coming out while the first handful of times were being clocked. The first real reference for the top times was set by Norris, who was already close to the walls, but Verstappen soon relagated him. The slow surface wasn’t offering much to the drivers as of yet, and neither was race direction, so worried about interruptions that a yellow flag was waved for a car getting out of the way.
Bearman shooting up into second was the first indication that the track was starting to get better, as his time was barely a tenth off of Verstappen’s. The second one was Hadjar actually beating said time and enjoying his brief time commanding the timing tower until Norris bumped him off. The last stint saw many fresh sets fitted on cars waiting in the pitlane, which added to the track improvement resulted in times getting hacked, as long as the yellow flag allowed. Gasly getting stuck in turn 11 due to a probable hydraulic related problem caused many not to be able to improve their laps, and the subsequent work for the FIA: did the cars lift enough around the yellow flag? Or were their last laps in danger? While the wait stretched on, the eliminated drivers in Q1 until further notice were Bortoleto (P16), Stroll (P17), Colapinto (P18), Ocon (P19) and Gasly (P20).
Q2 kicked off in exactly the same way as Q1: a long queue in the pitlane and drivers slowly but surely opening up gaps between them and the car in front. The first reference would come from Verstappen, already faster in this run than his fastest Q1 time, but his rivals soon started to poke their heads out. Antonelli managed to stay in the same tenth as Versappen until his time was deleted due to track limits, but not even the McLaren drivers managed to lower the Red Bull’s time. The surprise in this first stint was Leclerc, as he could only be 13th after touching the wall while Hamilton had managed to split the papaya cars.
Antonelli’s second attempr didn’t start off great with a yellow first sector, but he made it up in the second, painting it purple to cruise to first. Russell followed in his footsteps, overtaking his teammate to score a Mercedes 1-2 at the top, only eventually split by Verstappen., but the real battles were further down below. The drivers around the elimination zone tried it all to improve their times, but they couldn’t match what had been done by the silver arrows, save for Leclerc, who got it together and managed one good lap in order to make it through. The eliminated drivers in Q2 were Hulkenberg (P11), Albon (P12), Sainz (P13), Lawson (P14) and Tsunoda (P15).
For the last time in the night, drivers lined up in the pitlane, this time with less strees and need to go out, to set a fast lap. Russell was the first out, and also the first to paint the sectors in purple, even touching the walls to lower his earier times by almost half a second. His teammate followed suit, but was unable to match him. However, his lap was good enough so stay in front of everyone else save for Piastri, who was just a handful of thousandths faster, and Verstappen, who managed to get under two tenths off of Russell.
The last stint was spearheaded by the McLarens, with Norris unable to lower his time and staying in fifth temporarily. Leclerc was next, imitating Norris’ result, and Ruseel followed, this time managing to be quicker by barely a handful of thousandths. Eyes then turned to Verstappen, who pushed too hard in the first sector and was forced to abort due to a bad second sector. However, despite not getting pole and yielding to Russell, it still was a better result than expected for the Red Bull driver, who was still in front of his rivals for the title in a track where this result wasn’t exactly expected.
Singapore has never really been Verstappen’s turf, as it’s the only track on the current calendar where he’s never collected a win, but this season looks closer than ever for the Dutchman. McLaren doesn’t look to be as dominant as it has been in other tracks, while Mercedes has proven being quite strong, aiding in Verstappen’s quest to put as many cars as possible between him and the papaya team. Things can still change, specially in a track where mistakes are costly, but for now, Verstappen takes the first round.
MiniDrivers – F1
2025 Singapore GP
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