Verstappen Takes Singapore Pole and Sprint Win to Build Late-Season Momentum

Max Verstappen ended Saturday at the Singapore Grand Prix in commanding form, converting a wet-weather sprint victory into pole position for Sunday's grand prix — and giving himself the chance to complete a second race win inside a week.

Sunday's race at Marina Bay will be Verstappen's 250th in Formula 1, and the Red Bull driver arrives at it having rediscovered the kind of form that made him so dangerous in the second half of last season.

Ferraris lurking, but Red Bull wary of slow starts

Verstappen will line up with two eager Ferrari drivers directly behind him, after Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton both felt they had narrowly missed out on a pole position that was within reach.

The Dutchman also carries a concern about Red Bull's inconsistent getaways. He lost the lead off the line both at last weekend's race in Malaysia and again in the Singapore sprint. If he drops back at the start on a circuit where overtaking is at a premium, he will not find it as easy to recover as he did on his way to his first victory of the season.

He is, as ever, refusing to get ahead of himself. "It was a good qualifying," Verstappen said. "It was always very close and we got ahead when it mattered and we are very happy with that.

"All weekend the car has been in a good window and that makes it a lot easier to find your rhythm. Incredibly happy to start first. Still a long race ahead, a lot of things can go wrong but we have done everything up until now well so hopefully we can continue that tomorrow.

"It's been a really positive last few races and we want to keep that momentum going."

Championship maths still stacked against him

The turnaround has been built on steady work by Red Bull to get the car into a window where Verstappen can predict its behaviour and push to the limit. When a Red Bull is in that sweet spot, Verstappen can be close to unbeatable — as he proved in a remarkable comeback last year, when he ate into a 100-point deficit to the championship lead and ultimately missed out on a fifth title by just two points.

This season, however, the gap is even bigger. Verstappen sits 129 points behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli with only 175 points still available, assuming the two end-of-season races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi take place amid the ongoing war in the Middle East.

Overturning that would require something close to a miracle — a non-stop stream of wins for Verstappen combined with an unlikely run of poor form and bad luck for the Mercedes driver — so the title can realistically be dismissed. But Verstappen's return to the front is a genuine threat to McLaren, who lie third in the constructors' championship, only 11 points ahead of Red Bull.