SINGAPORE — George Russell took a surprise pole position for Mercedes at the Singapore Grand Prix ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in second place and championship leader Oscar Piastri in third.

It was Russell’s first pole position since the Canadian Grand Prix earlier this year — which he went on to win — and he held a comfortable margin of 0.182 seconds over Verstappen’s Red Bull.

Piastri qualifying his McLaren in third place behind Verstappen adds to the narrative that the reigning champion has an outside shot at defending his title this year despite trailing by 69 points in the standings.

Following consecutive victories at the last two rounds, Verstappen has closed the gap to Piastri by 35 points at the last two rounds, with Lando Norris, who qualified fifth on Saturday, in second place in the standings and 25 points off his McLaren teammate Piastri.

The result may have been better for Verstappen had he not aborted his final attempt in Q3 after coming across Norris’ McLaren on a slow lap in the final sector.

Norris had already completed his second Q3 run when Verstappen came up behind him and was returning to the pits at a slower pace.

Although Verstappen wasn’t close enough to Norris for it to be considered impeding, Verstappen appeared to lose performance in Norris’ dirty air through Turns 16 and 17, which he believed cost him a shot at pole position.

Speaking after the session, Verstappen said: “That’s what happens when there’s a car in front of you just cruising, just two seconds in front. That’s noted, [and] will be remembered as well.”

Nevertheless, Verstappen’s performance will be a huge boost for Red Bull, which has not performed well at high-downforce circuits like Singapore so far this year.

The defending champion will also be buoyed by McLaren’s apparent struggle after Piastri, who was 0.366 seconds off Russell’s time, admitted he was “surprised” not to have the pace to challenge for pole position.

“I would have wanted more today but I don’t think we had four tenths in it to get pole,” he said afterwards.

Russell’s pole position — the seventh of his career — comes after a second-place finish at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix but was still a surprise for the British driver given Mercedes’ struggle in hot conditions this season.

“Amazing to be on pole position,” Russell said. “Yesterday was a very challenging day for many different reasons but good to come back and get a result.

“A long sweaty race tomorrow but I knew there was potential in the car. Kimi was doing an amazing job all weekend.”

Mercedes’ strong performance was underlined by Kimi Antonelli securing fourth on the grid, which could have been higher had he not made a small mistake at Turn 11.

Antonelli will start ahead of Norris in fifth place, with the two Ferraris of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc in seventh and eighth.

Haas driver Oliver Bearman and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso qualified rounded out the top ten on the grid.

Nico Hülkenberg will line up 11th for Sauber. Williams duo Alexander Albon and Carlos Sainz finished 12th and 13th but were later disqualified for a DRS infringement and start the race at the back of the grid while the drivers who qualified behind move up two places.

After crashing twice in practice, Liam Lawson qualified his Racing Bulls car in 14th ahead of Verstappen’s teammate Yuki Tsunoda, who again struggled for performance and qualified his Red Bull 15th.

Pierre Gasly had to stop at the side of the track on his final lap in Q1 after he lost power steering with an apparent hydraulic problem and parked his car before the Anderson Bridge. The issue left Gasly in last place at the end of Q1 and also caused a yellow flag that disrupted the laps of a number of drivers on a hot lap at the end of the session.

Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto was among them and missed out on a place in Q3 by 0.045 seconds, leaving him 16th on the grid ahead of Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin in 17th place, who was also impacted. Franco Colapinto was 18th fastest for Alpine, 0.007 seconds clear of the Haas of Esteban Ocon in 19th, who also came across the yellow flag at the end of Q1.

The final Q1 laps of Bortoleto, Hulkenberg and Tsunoda were all under investigation after the session for yellow flag infringements.