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Mercedes' George Russell took center stage from the championship fighters with a impressive qualifying win at the Singapore

The driver's initial pole position since the Montreal Grand Prix in June, which he won, was achieved by a narrow margin from Red Bull's Verstappen

McLaren's championship leader Piastri took third place, with his title rival and team-mate Norris fifth, behind the Mercedes squad's Kimi Antonelli

Ferrari's Hamilton and Charles Leclerc took P6 and P7

It was Mercedes' first pole in Singapore since Hamilton set his famous lap in 2018 and came as a surprise as George Russell gatecrashed the McLaren duo's battle

The discussion prior to the event was about whether Verstappen could defeat McLaren and take a third straight victory

And while the Dutch driver begins the Grand Prix in front of both McLaren cars, and with a strong chance of bolstering his championship hopes, it was George Russell who came out on top

He set the fastest lap on his initial attempt in Q3, despite touching the wall out of the final corner, and then improved it by 0.007secs on his final attempt

Verstappen and Piastri both could not better on their last attempts - and the Red Bull driver blamed that on Norris driving slow in front of him in the final sector

The situation happened on the run to the final corner, where Norris was on the inner side entering the pit lane as Verstappen sought to finish his qualifying run

His engineer Lambiase said: "You can thank your mate for that," a reference to the close relationship between Verstappen and Norris

Verstappen, who looked angry about the incident in the aftermath of qualifying, said: "If not for that I think it would have been close for pole"

Russell remarked: "I had a difficult day yesterday for many reasons but it's good to bounce back and get a positive outcome today. I knew there was potential in the car"

Piastri said he simply did not have the pace to compete and was 0.366secs off the top spot

Additional updates coming