Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) will start from 20th place at the Singapore Grand Prix, while George Russell (Mercedes) will start 21st due to a 40-place penalty. Isaac Hajjar (Red Bull) takes the last, 22nd place.
The final official grid places Alonso in the position he took in qualifying. The Spaniard retired in Q1 with a time of 1:34.223, after which Aston Martin confirmed a change to his car's power unit.
„In qualifying we didn't have the speed to go into Q2. "We will change Fernando's powertrain in response to his feedback," said Mike Crack, Aston Martin's chief racing officer.
The Grande Prêmio initially reported that the change would send Alonso to 21st. However, the official FIA grid later published showed the Spaniard remaining 16th, with no penalty, but the use of a sixth turbocharger sent him to 20th. The same list placed Russell 21st and Hajjar 22nd.
Russell receives 40-place penalty
Russell set the sixth fastest time in qualifying – 1:31.747, but will start from the bottom of the grid due to exceeding the season's quota of powertrain components.
Mercedes used a fifth combustion engine, a fifth turbocharger, a fifth exhaust kit and a fourth MGU-K. Each of these items resulted in a 10-place penalty, making a total penalty of 40 places.
The Briton also suffered an incident in the sprint when he crashed while leading the race. After recovering his car, he reported that the car felt different, but he still qualified sixth.
Verstappen on pole position
Max Verstappen (Red Bull) will start from pole position with a time of 1:31.373. Next to him on the front row is Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), who was 0.054 seconds behind. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) is third, and Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) is fourth. In the third row are McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastre. Gabriele Bortoletto (Audi) is 14th, and Franco Colapinto (Alpine) is 15th.
The Singapore Grand Prix will be held at the “Marina Bay“ track from 20:00 local time (15 hours Bulgarian time). The race is in 62 laps.
Sources: grandepremio.com, formula1.com