BRACE yourselves Formula One fans as the huge race at the Singapore Grand Prix is taking place TODAY – and the event has reached boiling point.
Lewis Hamilton topped FP1 for the first time this season before Carlos Sainz clocked the fastest time in the second practice session.
But it was Charles Leclerc who pipped Max Verstappen to victory in FP3 and the Ferrari racer followed that up by finishing on pole position in Qualifying.
- Race: 1pm
- Live stream: Sky Go
- TV channel: Sky Sports F1
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Follow ALL the action with our live blog below…
- Emillia Hawkins
Good Morning F1 fans!
It's race day!
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc will start today's Singapore Grand Prix from the front of the grid following yesterday's faultless qualifying session.
Sergio Perez will line up alongside him while Lewis Hamilton, who earned his first top-three qualifying finish of the season yesterday, starting in third.
Championship leader Max Verstappen dropped down to EIGHTH in qualifying yesterday after his team told him to ABANDON his final flying lap.
But, the Dutchman could still WIN the Drivers Championship today if things go his way.
- Jon Boon
Leclerc on his final lap
Charles Leclerc on his final lap to earn pole.
He said: “It was really really special, every qualifying in street tracks are super on the limit, the more when it’s damp like that and certain part of the track are wet when you lose the rear but overall I managed to do a clean lap and it worked well.”
Yes it did, Charles.
- Jon Boon
Attack, Attack, Attack
Red Bull's Sergio Perez knows what he has to do in the front row for Sunday's Singapore Grand Prix.
The Mexican will be starting in the front row for the first time in his career – behind Charles Leclerc.
He revealed: "It's already an opportunity tomorrow from the start to attack Charles and I'll go for the win. It's quite disappointing to miss out by two hundredths but at the end of the day, it's a great team results and I think they did a fantastic job. Very happy.
"It was so tricky to learn the conditions today and tomorrow again, it can be wet at any time. It will be so important not to make any mistakes."
- Jon Boon
'Grateful Lewis'
Lewis Hamilton has revealed he is grateful to be on the second row – ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix.
He said after qualifying: “I was pushing so hard, I was so close I was trying so hard, these guys are so quick, but I thought maybe with the perfect lap we could be fighting for first place but I just didn’t have the grip in the last lap.
"But I’m grateful to be on the second row and for the team to continue to push, hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.
“We knew the car would be stronger than it was in Monza but we didn’t know how close we would be, to lose out just by that bit, it’s ok but we will just get up and fight again tomorrow.”
- Jon Boon
Verstappen on being told to box and abort
Max Verstappen has had his say on being told to box and abort during qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix – which saw him blow his lid.
He told Sky Sports: "They told me to abort so I thought okay I'll do that but then on the final lap, they told me to box and then I realised what was going to happen and we ran out of fuel.
"That's just incredibly frustrating and shouldn't happen. And even when you under fuel it – we you track that throughout the session – you're not going to make it and we should've seen that clearly.
"Not happy at the moment. It's a team effort. I can make mistakes and the team can make mistakes but it's never acceptable. Of course you learn from it but this is really bad shouldn't happen."
- Jon Boon
Watch Verstappen fume
Furious Max Verstappen launched an X-rated blast at Red Bull during qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix.
The reigning world champion, who turned 25 on Friday, was aiming to secure pole position for Sunday's race.
As he went around his flying lap in the hope of catching provisional pole-setter Charles Leclerc, Verstappen looked well on course to set the best time of Q3.
After crushing the second sector, the Dutchman – who knows he can secure the world title tomorrow – would have been confident of starting the race at the front of the grid.
But his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase suddenly came on to the radio and said: "Box, Max, box, box, box, box."
You can see what happened next below!
- Jon Boon
Russell's disappointment
It was a disappointing qualifying for George Russell.
The Brit will start tomorrow's Singapore Grand Prix in 11th on the grid.
"It's a shame not to be out there and not to be fighting where we should be," he told Sky Sports.
- Emillia Hawkins
FIA take no further action against Hamilton after jewellery row
Lewis Hamilton will NOT be fined for wearing his nose piercing while driving for Mercedes despite the FIA's no jewellery rule.
The seven-time world champion was summoned to the stewards this afternoon after being spotted with the piercing while in the pit lane.
But, he has since revealed that he had to wear it due to an infection.
Hamilton said: "Basically I've had my jewellery and my nose stud for years and obviously we had that whole commotion at the beginning of the year.
"At the time it was like soldered in, so it didn't come loose. They gave me an exemption so I could find a solution.
"Then I went to get it taken out and tried to find a solution, putting it in and out. It got infected because of that.
"I got a blood blister and had quite a sore on my nose because there was puss and blood. I put this back in and in the last two weeks it's started to heal and they've asked that I keep it in.
"It's crazy that we're having to talk about something so small. I take everything else out. At this point, I don't really care to be honest."
Credit: Getty - Emillia Hawkins
'Really really special'
Charles Leclerc topped the timesheets this afternoon, earning his ninth pole position of the season.
After qualifying, he told Sky Sports: "An amazing crowd and it’s great to see so many people attending the event, it’s been a very tricky qualifying, Q1, Q2 with the inters then in Q3 we didn’t really know what to do we went for the softs at the very last minute and it paid off.
"I thought we wouldn’t get pole but it paid off and I’m really happy.
“I’m very happy with today considering the Friday that we had, we had very limited laps but we recovered well, we don’t have much data for the race run but if we do the perfect execution I’m sure we can win."
"It [the final lap] was really really special, every qualifying in street tracks are super on the limit, the more when it’s damp like that and certain part of the track are wet when you lose the rear but overall I managed to do a clean lap and it worked well."
Credit: Getty
- Emillia Hawkins
'Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day'
Lewis Hamilton earned his first top-three qualifying finish of the season this afternoon.
The seven-time World Champion was thrilled with the result, but he hopes that the team will go one step further by winning tomorrow's race.
He told Sky Sports: "I was pushing so hard, I was so close I was trying so hard, these guys are so quick, but I thought maybe with the perfect lap we could be fighting for first place but I just didn’t have the grip in the last lap.
"But I’m grateful to be on the second row and for the team to continue to push, hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.
“We knew the car would be stronger than it was in Monza but we didn’t know how close we would be, to lose out just by that bit, it’s ok but we will just get up and fight again tomorrow."
Credit: Getty - Emillia Hawkins
Verstappen reacts to Q3 mishap
When speaking to Sky Sports, the Dutchman said: "They told me to abort so I thought okay I'll do that but then on the final lap, they told me to box and then I realised what was going to happen and we ran out of fuel.
"That's just incredibly frustrating and shouldn't happen. And even when you under fuel it – you track that throughout the session – you're not going to make it and we should've seen that clearly.
"Not happy at the moment. It's a team effort. I can make mistakes and the team can make mistakes but it's never acceptable. Of course you learn from it but this is really bad shouldn't happen."
Credit: EPA - Emillia Hawkins
Leclerc takes pole, Hamilton starts third
Credit: @F1 - Emillia Hawkins
End of Q3
Leclerc takes pole position!
Perez will start second on the grid.
Meanwhile, Hamilton has earned his first top three finish of the season!
Verstappen dropped down to SEVENTH late in the session after being told to ABANDON his final lap by Red Bull staff.
The Dutchman is furious!
Credit: @F1 - Emillia Hawkins
Five minutes to go in Q3
Hamilton is running QUICKEST with just a few minutes remaining!
Could this be his first pole position of 2022?
- Emillia Hawkins
Q3 begins
Here we go!
The third and final round of today's qualifying session has begun.
Hamilton is looking to secure his first pole position of the season, but he faces stiff competition from Leclerc and Verstappen.
Credit: AFP
- Emillia Hawkins
End of Q2
Leclerc goes quickest in Q2 with Hamilton still running in second.
Verstappen has dropped down to third.
Russell is OUT.
Stroll, Vettel, Zhou and Schumacher have also been eliminated.
Credit: @F1 - Emillia Hawkins
Five minutes to go in Q2
Leclerc leads with Verstappen trailing.
Hamilton has dropped to sixth fastest.
Schumacher, Magnussen, Zhou, Russell and Tsunoda are currently in the elimination zone with Vettel, Gasly and Stroll at risk.
- Emillia Hawkins
Q2 begins
Hamilton will look to battle Verstappen for pole once again, with Leclerc and Perez still in the mix.
Credit: AFP - Emillia Hawkins
End of Q1
Verstappen goes quickest in Q1 with Hamilton one tenth of a second behind.
Leclerc is third with Perez trailing.
Bottas, Ricciardo, Ocon, Albon and Latifi are all eliminated.
Credit: @F1 - Emillia Hawkins
Five minutes to go in Q1
Leclerc leads with both Red Bulls hot on his heels.
Bottas, Vettel, Tsunoda, Albon and Latifi are all in the elimination zone with Gasly, Ricciardo, Zhou and Norris all at risk.
- Emillia Hawkins
Qualifying is underway
Q1 is underway as Max Verstappen looks to take pole position in a bid to boost his chances of winning the Drivers Championship this weekend!
- Emillia Hawkins
BREAKING: Hamilton expected to be fined
Lewis Hamilton is expected to be hit with a fine for breaking F1's bling ban.
The Mercedes ace has been called to the stewards at the Singapore Grand Prix relating to a breach of Appendix L, Chapter III of the FIA International Sporting Code.
That relates to a driver's helmet, clothing and jewellery – an item that new FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem has promised to get strict on.
His ban on jewellery threatened to overshadow the Miami, Monaco and British GPs earlier this year, as Hamilton refused to remove his nose stud.
However, the Brit eventually backed down and removed the offending piercing in Silverstone and in the subsequent races.
Yet in Singapore, he was wearing the stud in a morning PR event and while it is currently unknown if he was still wearing it for third practice, it could be the item has triggered the call from the stewards' office.
However, the stud appeared to still be in his nose as he wore his helmet while sat in his car in the garage.
If he is found to be guilty, he will be fined and warned about removing the nose stud in future.
Credit: Getty - Emillia Hawkins
Christian Horner responds to cost-cap claims
When speaking to Sky Sports, the Red Bull boss said: "We were a little bit taken aback by comments that were coming from two of our rival teams yesterday.
"The submission between the team and the FIA is one that is confidential.
"I have no idea what the outcome of our rivals' submissions are, or their accounting treatment or so on, so I would be intrigued to know where their source of information for these fictitious claims have come from."
He added: "The (comments from other teams) are hugely defamatory, and we take umbrage to them.
"One can only assume it's uncoincidental that this is at a point where Max has his first strike at the world championship.
"How on earth do they have this information? Where do they have this knowledge? The FIA have even stated that they haven't even completed their process.
"So unless there is a clear withdrawal of those statements, we will be taking it incredibly seriously and looking at what the options available to us are, because it is absolutely unacceptable to be making comments of the type that were made yesterday, that are totally defamatory to the team, the brands and even to Formula 1."
Credit: Getty - Emillia Hawkins
Leclerc fastest in FP3
Charles Leclerc pipped title challenger Max Verstappen and teammate Carlos Sainz to secure the fastest time in FP3.
Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton finished 12th fastest and George Russell ninth.
Next up: Qualifying!
Credit: Twitter.com / @F1 - Emillia Hawkins
Practice three underway
The third and final practice session of the afternoon is underway BUT the drivers are not allowed to leave the pit lane just yet.
The track is currently deemed unsafe due to heavy rain and expected thunderstorms.
Credit: Getty
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