Carlos Sainz on top as Max Verstappen struggles in final practice at Singapore
Carlos Sainz
Max Verstappen faces a fight to take pole position at the Singapore Grand Prix after calling his Red Bull “unacceptable” in final practice.
As Carlos Sainz raced to the top of the time charts at the Marina Bay Circuit, Verstappen finished fourth.
The Dutchman is on an unprecedented 10-race winning streak with his Red Bull team unbeaten at the 14 rounds of the season so far.
But Verstappen bemoaned the handling of his car in the city-state, describing the upshifts in his Red Bull machinery as "unacceptable".
He added: "These upshifts, what the f***. I am just struggling for rear grip. If I competed in drifting, I might win the race."
Verstappen returned to the track in the closing moments of the one-hour running, ringing the neck of his Red Bull to move from sixth to fourth, 0.313 sec slower than Sainz.
But his struggles will give the chasing pack hope of finally stopping Verstappen and Red Bull with Ferrari holding the upper hand heading into qualifying later on Saturday.
Sainz and team-mate Charles Leclerc traded top spot in the two practice sessions here on Friday, with the former again fastest in the concluding running before the fight for pole.
Leclerc looked set to eclipse Sainz only to make a mistake in the second sector before backing out of his speediest lap, finishing fifth.
George Russell took an encouraging second for Mercedes, just 0.069 sec slower than Sainz, with Lando Norris third in his McLaren. Lewis Hamilton was sixth for Mercedes, within half-a-second of Sainz.
Verstappen’s team-mate Sergio Perez, who won here last year, finished eighth, 0.719 sec back.
FP3 Results:
1 Carlos SAINZ Ferrari 1:32.065
2 George RUSSELL Mercedes +0.069
3 Lando NORRIS McLaren +0.238
4 Max VERSTAPPEN Red Bull Racing +0.313
5 Charles LECLERC Ferrari +0.316
6 Lewis HAMILTON Mercedes +0.470
7 Oscar PIASTRI McLaren +0.665
8 Sergio PEREZ Red Bull Racing +0.719
9 Nico HULKENBERG Haas F1 Team +0.831
10 Yuki TSUNODA AlphaTauri +0.880
11 Kevin MAGNUSSEN Haas F1 Team +0.905
12 Esteban OCON Alpine +0.914
13 Fernando ALONSO Aston Martin +0.986
14 Lance STROLL Aston Martin +1.061
15 Pierre GASLY Alpine +1.286
16 Liam LAWSON AlphaTauri +1.292
17 Alexander ALBON Williams +1.305
18 Valtteri BOTTAS Alfa Romeo +1.475
19 Guanyu ZHOU Alfa Romeo +1.572
20 Logan SARGEANT Williams +1.643
