Just a day earlier, however, Mercedes had been a complete mystery. On Friday night after FP2, Kimi Antonelli was only 18th, while George Russell’s session ended abruptly after just six laps due to a crash that brought his run to an early close. The team’s potential was impossible to gauge, especially after Antonelli aborted his first attempt on softs because of the red flag caused by Lawson and then skipped a second qualifying simulation in favor of a short race-fuel stint. It was a surprising call, considering that the young Italian was tackling Marina Bay for the very first time.
Twenty-four hours later, everything made sense. Mercedes engineers had already gathered the high-fuel performance data they needed from Antonelli’s earlier laps and decided to focus entirely on race configuration. In FP3, both Russell and Antonelli finished in third and fourth respectively, the first clear sign that the W16 was well balanced through Marina Bay’s 19 corners. Even so, few in the paddock had included Russell among the favorites for pole position.
Then qualifying began, and Mercedes proved everyone wrong. From Q1 onwards, both Russell and Antonelli looked strong. When it mattered most, Russell delivered two flawless laps — separated by only seven thousandths of a second — either of which would have secured him pole position. “Now I can finally say it,” Russell admitted afterwards. “Until a short while ago, this weekend had been really strange. I was struggling to find confidence in the car, but I always knew the potential was there. The team executed everything perfectly.” His words pointed directly to one key factor — the tire strategy.
After FP2, Mercedes chose to keep only one set of hard and medium tires, dedicating the entire Saturday to running softs — two sets in FP3 and five in qualifying. This strategic move ensured both Russell and Antonelli entered Q3 with two brand-new sets of softs available. “My confidence grew with every lap,” Russell added, “and those two laps in Q3 for pole position were just fantastic.”
Kimi Antonelli’s fourth place was also a strong performance, particularly given that it was his first time at Marina Bay. Yet, the young Italian left qualifying satisfied but not overjoyed. His frustration stemmed from a small mistake in the final run of Q3, when he pushed too hard. “I overdid it,” he admitted. “I think I could have been alongside George. I carried too much speed into some corners and it didn’t pay off.” That bit of disappointment, however, underlines Antonelli’s growing confidence in the car. He already felt capable of strong results as early as Friday — and the fact that a top-four finish doesn’t fully satisfy him is a very good sign for Mercedes.
Attention now turns to what Mercedes can achieve over the 62 laps of Sunday’s Grand Prix. The starting positions are ideal, but the lack of proper long-run data from Friday — due to two red flags in FP2 — makes predictions difficult. Strategy and tire management will play a crucial role in deciding whether the Brackley team can turn pole into victory.
Russell, for his part, was careful not to get carried away. “I can’t really say this track has been one of my favorites in the past,” he admitted. “I’ve made a few mistakes here over the years, so I don’t want to get ahead of myself. Being on pole is an incredible result, but I’m expecting a very tough race.”
That cautious optimism is well-founded, because Mercedes’ performance was genuinely impressive — and unexpected. The most remarkable aspect of the W16’s form in Singapore is that it came in high temperatures, long considered the team’s Achilles heel. Over the past months, the Brackley engineers have worked tirelessly to overcome this weakness, and now they seem to have succeeded. The W16’s stability on circuits without fast corners and with heavy braking zones has always been one of its key strengths — and in Singapore, Mercedes finally managed to capitalize fully on it.
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