Can Anyone Get Near Russell’s 2025 Singapore Pole? #Shorts #F1 #Formula1 #SingaporeGP #Verstappen

Nearly 2 seconds slower. Saw it coming?

Here is Singapore’s pole lap from 2025 against the sprint pole lap from 2026. George Russell’s 1:29.158 in the Mercedes took pole for the 2025 Grand Prix. Max Verstappen’s 1:31.156 in the Red Bull took pole for the 2026 sprint on Friday night. Both are real laps from the official timing data, drawn on one clock so you can watch the gap open.

The 2026 lap is 1.998 seconds slower. Most of it – 1.320 s – goes in the middle sector, the run from Turn 7 to Turn 13. Verstappen gives up 0.357 s in the first sector and 0.321 s in the last.

Corner by corner, the 2025 car carried more speed at the slowest point of 12 of the 19 corners and the 2026 car at 6, with one level. The biggest differences are in that middle sector: about 19 km/h at Turn 9 and about 20 km/h at Turn 10. The 2026 car was quicker through Turn 4, by 18 km/h. On the straights the 2025 lap topped out at 316 km/h against 308.

Same track both years: the 2023 change that turned the old Turns 16 to 19 into one straight is still in place, and the two racing lines sit a median of 2 metres apart.

One caveat: Verstappen’s lap is from sprint qualifying and Russell’s is from Saturday’s Q3, so the two laps were set in different sessions with different running beforehand. Saturday’s qualifying for the Grand Prix comes next.

Scope and method: the two pole laps only – one driver and one car each year, not every car on the grid. Corner speeds are the lowest speed within 45 m of each corner.

Source: 2025 Singapore Grand Prix qualifying and 2026 Singapore sprint qualifying timing and car telemetry (FastF1).

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