McLaren’s Lando Norris will start the night race from pole position, with championship leader Max Verstappen joining him on the front row in his Red Bull.
Mercedes duo Lewis Hamilton and George Russell will line up third and fourth respectively, while Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz will share the fifth row.
Fernando Alonso believes that Aston Martin needs “a shake-up” for 2025, stating that the current performance of its AMR24 Formula 1 car is “not good enough”.
Alonso pointed to the team’s anticipation of Adrian Newey’s arrival in March next year, too late to have any real impact on the design of its car for next season but with a view to improving its fortunes for 2026.
He noted that Aston Martin’s simulations had predicted it would be the “seventh- or eighth-fastest” in Singapore, which the Spaniard managed to transcend with seventh on the grid in qualifying. Lance Stroll qualified 17th, however.
Speaking about the future, Alonso suggested that the team couldn’t afford to simply sacrifice 2025 for a better 2026, and that those in charge of the car’s design need to “change the pace” for next year in order to find more success.
“I think 2026 is in our heads, for everyone at Aston, and the biggest hope with Adrian coming, Enrico [Cardile] and some other names.
“This is going to be great, and the future looks bright, but 2025 is… we need to shake things a little bit. I mean, it’s not good enough what we are doing right now, and 2025 we need to change the pace.”
