Lando Norris takes pole as Max Verstappen starts on front row at Singapore

SINGAPORE -- Championship rivals Lando Norris and Max Verstappen will start alongside each other on the front row of the grid at Sunday's Singapore Grand Prix.

McLaren's Norris, who trails Verstappen by 59 points in the drivers' standings, took pole position by 0.203 seconds ahead of the Red Bull driver, with Lewis Hamilton securing third on the grid for Mercedes.

Norris has seven races remaining to close the deficit to Verstappen after taking 19 points out of the lead in the last three races.

Norris said he was pleased with his lap. "It was tough, especially to the end of qualifying, I was finding it difficult to progress and to gain a lot of lap time and all the guys around seemed to get quicker and quicker so it put me under more pressure with it being just one lap at the end, but it was good enough for pole and I'm happy with that, especially with it being Singapore."

He added: "I had faith and I could just do what I've been doing all weekend ... It's tricky, the car is moving around, it's bumpy, it's easy to brake one metre too late ... so you pay the price for overdriving and overpushing and I kept it cool and I did what I had to do."

Verstappen said afterwards: "I think the whole of qualifying actually went quite well. We managed to improve the car run after run. I'm happy to be on the front row, if you look at where we came from yesterday, Q3 was tough. Your lap gets cancelled with the double yellow, then everyone only has one run to do the lap, you don't want to overdo it, so you want to stay within the limit. I'll take second, I'm happy with that."

George Russell will start fourth in the second Mercedes ahead of Oscar Piastri, who won the last race in Azerbaijan but struggled to match the performance of teammate Norris over one lap in Singapore.

Mercedes' teammate Hamilton, whose best qualifying performance this year was second at the British Grand Prix, said afterwards: "Qualifying has a been a disaster for me all year long and I've just been working and working just to get myself back up there and all of a sudden the car came alive in qualifying for the first time in a long time."

Nico Hulkenberg was one of the stars of Saturday's qualifying, taking sixth on the grid for Haas ahead of Fernando Alonso's Aston Martin in seventh and RB's Yuki Tsunoda in eighth.

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Charles Leclerc will start ninth after his Q3 lap time, which would have been good enough for seventh place, was deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 2.

One year on from his pole position at the same circuit, Carlos Sainz crashed in the final corner as he prepared to start his first flying lap.

The Ferrari driver lost the rear of his car in Turn 18 and 19 before slamming the rear of his car into the barriers. The accident meant he failed to set a time in Q3 and qualified tenth.

Alexander Albon will start 11th on the grid, with his recently appointed Williams teammate Franco Colapinto just 0.007 seconds off in 12th place. Albon was heard on team radio after the session saying "what are we doing" after both Williams drivers appeared to struggle to get the most from their tyres.

Red Bull's Sergio Perez will start 13th following another lacklustre qualifying performance. He appeared to make a breakthrough last weekend in Azerbaijan, but after crashing out on the penultimate lap, his performance in Singapore qualifying will only ramp up the pressure on the Mexican once more.

Kevin Magnussen will start 14th for Haas after missing last weekend's race in Azerbaijan with a race ban, ahead of Alpine's Esteban Ocon in 15th.

Daniel Ricciardo missed out on a place in Q2 by 0.127 seconds, which will only add fuel to rumours this could be his last race weekend with RB.

After showing promise in practice, the Australian was only one second off the fastest time in Q1, but in such a competitive field it was enough to see him fail to make the cut for Q2. RB reserve driver Liam Lawson has been linked to his seat for next year, with the possibility he could be fast-tracked into the car at the next round at Austin to give him extra preparation for 2025.

Aston Martin's Lance Stroll will start in 17th ahead of the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and the two Saubers of Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu, making up the final row of the grid.