McLaren just one-thousandth of a second faster than last year: Lap time data

Oscar Piastri admitted McLaren were “surprised” not to be more competitive in Singapore.

His team mate Lando Norris won last year’s race from pole position at a canter. But the change in grip levels at several parts of the track this year, owing to partial resurfacing, appeared to catch McLaren out.

As a result, though almost every team lapped the circuit faster than they did last year, McLaren gained almost no time year-on-year.

Change from practice to qualifying

George Russell’s pole position ranks as one of the surprises of the season. Mercedes’ pace was well-hidden on Friday, partly due to Russell crashing before he could do a qualifying simulation run. By the end of qualifying they were almost three seconds quicker than the day before.

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Sector times

Max Verstappen looked like the favourite for pole position earlier in qualifying. His team told him his first laps in Q1 and Q2 were quick enough to secure a place at the next stage, which ensured he kept a full stock of fresh soft tyres.

However Russell was quicker than him in Q2 – by a hundredth of a second – and Q3. Verstappen felt he could have beaten Russell to pole position if he hadn’t been delayed by Lando Norris at the end of his lap, but there’s a good chance Russell’s advantage through the first two sectors would still have proved decisive.

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Teams’ performance

Only Alpine lapped more slowly around Singapore than they did 12 months ago. However Pierre Gasly’s loss of power in Q1 clearly compromised their potential.

McLaren’s result was more baffling, however. Piastri’s 1’29.524, just one-thousandth of a second faster than his team mate’s pole-winning time of last year, left them the third-fastest team.

“My first lap of Q3 felt reasonable,” he said afterwards. “It certainly didn’t feel ‘four tenths off’ bad. So I just don’t think we had the pace tonight, which is a little bit of a surprise for us.”

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Field performance

Russell set two laps quick enough for pole position and lowered the all-time record for the Singapore circuit to 1’29.158. That is over 15 seconds faster than the first pole position time at this track in 2008. Not only have the cars become quicker since then, but four corners have also been removed from the track configuration in 2023. The current configuration is likely to be used again next year as construction work continues at the waterfront.

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2025 Singapore Grand Prix

• McLaren just one-thousandth of a second faster than last year: Lap time data
• Half of 2025’s qualifying team mate battles have been won after Singapore
• Singapore was one of bottom three circuits I thought we’d take pole at – Russell
• Norris denies deliberately holding Verstappen up in qualifying
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