Singapore puts Verstappen's 2027 favourite tag to its first real test

The case GPblog made in rested on Red Bull's progress up to and including Sepang, however, the Marina Bay asks very different questions of a car, which is why Friday evening's sprint qualifying matters so much.

While Sepang rewards aerodynamic efficiency, medium and high-speed cornering performance and strong straight-line speed, Singapore places greater emphasis on low-speed traction, mechanical grip and stability over bumps and kerbs.

Verstappen did not get carried away after his win in Malaysia. "I think the win was quite track-specific so we will need to see how we go heading into this week," he said.

Speaking to the media on Thursday, he set modest targets for the Singapore GP weekend:

Verstappen led the medium-tyre running in sixth with a 1m33.006s, half a second faster than championship leader Antonelli, who ran into the Turn 16 escape road on his final flying lap. Hadjar was seven tenths slower than his Red Bull team-mate.

Overall, Russell was quicker still. Despite running the older Mercedes specification, Russell was fastest by far on soft tyres, setting a 1m32.274s. Verstappen ended the session 0.732 seconds behind him, on a harder compound.

The Mercedes split adds another data point. Russell was running an older specification of the car while Antonelli continued with the upgrade package introduced at the previous race. In other words, the old spec topped the session while the new spec was beaten by Verstappen on equal tyres, and should raise concerns for Mercedes.

Verstappen's afternoon was also far from clean. A radio failure kept him in the garage for a long spell. "It should be relatively minor, we had no radio with Max in that first run and that made everyone's lives difficult," Mekies said. "We had nothing at all, and it is quite difficult to run these cars with no radio."

FP1 should be read with caution as it was held in unrepresentative conditions, 53C track temperature, while both upcoming qualifying sessions and the main race, which will be held at night.

That is why sprint qualifying makes such a clean test. As GPblog noted, every driver must use the mediums in SQ1 and SQ2. Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren will have to show their pace on the same compound Red Bull used on Friday afternoon.

If Verstappen keeps a similar margin over Antonelli under the floodlights, the Sepang step looks like it carries over to circuits that have traditionally exposed Red Bull.

If the soft-tyre runners pull clear once everyone is on equal rubber, Sepang may have flattered the RB22. For Russell, any result is only part of the story, as the FIA has confirmed a power unit penalty that sends him to the back of the grid for Sunday's Grand Prix.