Verstappen takes pole in Singapore; team principal Mekies: “We’re now capable of winning anywhere”

The spell is broken: after three second-place starts for Max Verstappen at the Singapore Grand Prix (2017, 2018 and 2024), the Dutchman has finally secured his first pole position; this came after the four-time world champion had already secured the Singapore Sprint pole on Friday and won the short race on Saturday.

Red Bull Racing team principal Laurent Mekies is beaming: “The key to pole position today was a flawless performance from the driver and a car that ran without a single glitch.”

“We were on pole with Max for the Bahrain Grand Prix, then we won; now here in Singapore we’ve taken sprint pole and then victory in the sprint race, and now pole for the Grand Prix – we’re on a good run at the moment; and this comes after we only just missed out on victory in Baku.”

“What gives us hope is that these are three quite different circuits, yet we were right up there and in contention for victory every single time.”

“Max insisted on driving as little as possible; he was brimming with confidence. So he only did one lap in the first qualifying segment, and that was on tyres that had already been used. We were only in eighth place at that stage, but we knew we’d move up as qualifying progressed.”

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“Whilst we’re delighted with Max’s excellent result, we’re frustrated by Isack Hadjar’s bad luck. We had a problem with the power unit in the Sprint, and we’ve had another problem now in the GP qualifying session, this time with the gearbox. That’s hard to take.”