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10/10 10:06 CDT Verstappen does the double with pole and sprint race win at F1's Singapore Grand Prix Verstappen does the double with pole and sprint race win at F1's Singapore Grand Prix SINGAPORE (AP) --- Max Verstappen is the driver to beat in Formula 1 once again, but Kimi Antonelli continues to march toward the title. Verstappen won the sprint race and followed up with his 50th career pole position at the Singapore Grand Prix on Saturday, all at a circuit where he's often struggled in the past. Besides Verstappen, the day's other big winner was Antonelli, who widened his lead over George Russell when his Mercedes teammate crashed out from the lead in the sprint. The Italian qualified fourth, setting him up for another solid score tomorrow, when Russell must serve a grid penalty. An upgraded Red Bull car has been key to turning Verstappen's season around but it still has one big flaw. Verstappen said Red Bull will need to work on its "horrendous" starts after he lost the sprint lead off the line, just as he did in Malaysia last week --- when he still took his first win in 2026. "We don't accelerate off the line," he said. "Up until now we always have terrible starts so we need to understand what's going on there."

A chaotic sprint and quiet qualifying In an action-packed race which also saw Lando Norris collide with his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri, Russell beat Verstappen off the line at the start in wet conditions but lost control when he put a wheel on a painted line at the end of the first lap, spinning across the track and into the barrier. The British driver tapped his hands against the car in frustration as he climbed out. "I'm fine. Sorry, sorry, sorry," he told Mercedes over the radio. Verstappen eased to the win after that, with Ferrari duo Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc second and third. Qualifying was a quieter affair but still an even fight between Verstappen and the Ferraris, with McLaren and Mercedes a little off the pace. Verstappen's Red Bull teammate Isack Hadjar has been one of F1's better drivers since his return from injury last month but was a spectator Saturday, watching from the garage after a car problem early in the session. In the final part of qualifying, Verstappen's first lap proved to be good enough as he held on to take pole by 0.054 of a second ahead of Leclerc, with Hamilton third and Antonelli fourth. Russell qualified sixth but that means little because his penalty sends him to the back of the grid on a track where overtaking is notoriously difficult.

Another small step toward the title for Antonelli Antonelli was fourth, extending his lead over Russell from 84 points to 89, after he picked up two positions on the last lap when Norris and Piastri collided ahead of him. Norris tried an ambitious overtake down the inside of his teammate but badly misjudged it and sent the Australian spinning into the barrier. McLaren chief executive Zak Brown shook his head in dismay on the pit wall. Russell has a grid penalty for Sunday's Grand Prix, meaning the 20-year-old Antonelli could take another big step toward becoming F1's youngest-ever champion. Russell wasn't the only driver to be caught out in the wet conditions. He was one of eight non-finishers after a spate of collisions and technical problems, with Hadjar stopped by car trouble. Liam Lawson was fifth for Racing Bulls, with Haas' Oliver Bearman sixth and Nico Hlkenberg seventh for Audi. Norris recovered to claim a point in eighth in the last sprint of 2026. The start was delayed because of heavy rain, making it the second week running that an F1 race has started late. Last week's Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia was first held up by a downpour, then because several cars' software failed to cope with the wet conditions. The FIA issued a software update which was also being used in Singapore this week. ___ See AP's full auto racing coverage here

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