Martin Brundle brands F1 timing glitch in Singapore sprint qualifying “embarrassing”
Martin Brundle says F1's latest hiccup in Singapore is "embarrassing" after the farcical scenes at the start of the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Martin Brundle has branded the peculiar timing system glitch which delayed sprint qualifying at the Singapore Grand Prix “embarrassing” for Formula 1.
Less than a week after the start of the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia descended into farce due to a “software bug” impacting the 2026 engines, F1 was once again left red-faced due to two peculiar issues that disrupted sprint qualifying on Friday.
When SQ1 got back underway following a red flag due to Sergio Perez hitting the barriers, lap times were not being properly registered on the system, creating confusion for drivers who were unsure whether they had done enough to advance to the second part of sprint qualifying.
Brundle made his feelings clear as F1 faced its second significant blunder in as many weekends.
“This is a completely different problem to what we had last weekend in Sepang, but equally as embarrassing at Formula 1 level,” Brundle said during Sky Sports F1’s coverage of sprint qualifying.
The timing system problem led to the start of SQ2 being delayed by several minutes.
“Start of SQ2 will be delayed due to an issue with timing systems, some lap times had not been registered,” an FIA spokesperson said.
“That is now resolved and the current timings are considered correct. We are investigating whether we can proceed with the rest of the session.”
The rest of sprint qualifying was able to go ahead, though a separate issue caused by “human error” in race control left some cars down on power in SQ1.
"During the first period of Sprint Qualifying there was a human error in Race Control unrelated to the timing issue also encountered in SQ1,” the FIA acknowledged.
"This issue in question meant Overtake Mode was not available after the red flag period during SQ1. When it became apparent that Overtake Mode was not active after the restart, it was then activated for a period of 27 seconds before being deactivated again.
Max Verstappen eventually beat George Russell to pole position for Saturday’s 21-lap sprint race.
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