Russell starts second as Mercedes split aero packages leave Antonelli seventh in Singapore Sprint qualifying

George Russell qualified second for Saturday’s Singapore Sprint race after Mercedes split their aerodynamic packages between their two cars during Friday’s shootout at Marina Bay Street Circuit, leaving rookie championship leader Andrea Kimi Antonelli a distant seventh.

The factory decision was a deliberate data-gathering exercise on a struggling upgrade. Russell, running the older W17 specification, set a lap just 0.120 seconds behind polesitter Max Verstappen in SQ3. Antonelli, strapped into the heavily revised package, reported severe balance problems throughout the day and could not string a competitive lap together.

Russell acknowledged the pace gap to Verstappen but was upbeat about his Sprint prospects. “It’s been a relatively good first day for me here in Singapore,” he told reporters. “We were competitive in FP1, topping the timesheets, and my final lap in SQ3 felt good. We knew coming into the session that Max was fast and unfortunately, we couldn’t quite get ahead of him with that last effort.”

The British driver identified a specific track characteristic that could shape the opening moments of the Sprint. “We saw that there’s a big difference in grip from the left to the right side of the track here last year, with those lining up on the pole position side having an advantage,” Russell noted. “The task off the line tomorrow will likely be to maintain P2 and then see what we can do to challenge for victory from there.”

Overtaking at Marina Bay is notoriously difficult, making the start sequence critical. Russell’s ambitions for the Sprint are, however, tempered by the knowledge that a mandatory engine penalty will drop him to the back of the grid for Sunday’s main Grand Prix.

Antonelli, who holds an 84-point lead in the Drivers’ Championship, was candid about his difficulties. “It was a bit more of a tricky day for me today, and it felt difficult to put a lap together unfortunately,” he said. “From the first session onwards, I wasn’t comfortable with the balance.”

The contrasting results have handed Mercedes a clear verdict on their upgrade direction ahead of the full qualifying session later in the weekend, though the team must now decide how to configure both cars for the remainder of the Singapore event.