Formula 1 | Mercedes with the belief that they can win in Singapore

At Mercedes they savored pole position for the entire duration of qualifying, but in the end Lewis Hamilton was unable to conquer it by only half a tenth of a second, indeed, the gap between the leaders was so narrow that he wasn't even able to take first line. It went badly for the other Mercedes, that of George Russell, who was eleventh due to a problem with the braking system which effectively prevented him from entering Q3.

“Qualifying gave us some hope, but in the end it's disappointing to see Lewis just 50 thousandths from pole position – said Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes on-track technical director. George, however, was eliminated in Q2 due to a brake problem. Free practice didn't go well, we had difficulty getting the tires to work, but the changes made in qualifying worked with the intermediates. The track dried out in an unusual way, the humid conditions and the lack of wind made everything slower, it wasn't clear when to switch to slicks. Lewis had great pace at the end but he stalled at turn 16 and this cost him a lot of time. It's still a good starting position, and we worked more on the long runs than the two cars in front, so we will fight to chase the first win of the season."