Red Bull’s Verstappen appeared to have the pace to take pole but abandoned his penultimate lap after an error and then was told urgently to pit before finishing his final one. “We got a little surprised we had that extra lap but you can track that, you see that coming. “In hindsight, I should have finished the lap before when they told me to abort to make a gap for the last lap. Leclerc will not care about Verstappen’s problems after taking his second consecutive pole in Singapore – but the first since 2019 as the race returns to the calendar after the pandemic.

Follow MotorMouth on social media:

• 
• 
• 
•