2025 Singapore Grand Prix – Saturday
Singapore, 4 October 2025 – Stake F1 Team KICK Sauber placed one car just outside the top ten in a tense qualifying session for the Singapore Grand Prix. Under the floodlights of Marina Bay, Nico Hulkenberg delivered a strong performance, putting together clean laps in Q2 to secure P11 – missing out on a spot in Q3 by a mere 0.065s. Gabriel Bortoleto, meanwhile, saw his final attempt in Q1 hampered by a late yellow flag, leaving him P16 on the grid despite showing encouraging pace.
Jonathan Wheatley, Team Principal: “After a very hot and humid qualifying session here in Singapore, we can take some positives from today. For Gabi, finishing P16 on his first outing at this demanding circuit — without having had a completely clean run on new tyres until qualifying — is definitely encouraging. On the other side of the garage, Nico delivered a strong and composed session with clean laps, ending just 0.065 seconds off Q3. Starting P11, with an extra set of new soft tyres, he’s in a great position to fight for points tomorrow.”
Nico Hulkenberg (car number 27):
FP3: 9th / 1:30.637 (17 laps)
Q1: 1:30.715 (9 laps)
Q2: 11th / 1:30.141 (6 laps)
“I’m quite happy with today’s qualifying. My laps were tidy and showed good progression throughout. Starting from P11 isn’t a bad place, and we’ve got an extra set of soft tyres for tomorrow. With everyone going into the race a bit less prepared after yesterday’s red flags, when nobody was really able to perform proper long runs, there might be some surprises. As always, strategy will depend on how things unfold, but we’ll be pushing hard to make the most of it.”
Gabriel Bortoleto (car number 5):
FP3: 12th / 1:30.697 (25 laps)
Q1: 13th / 1:30.820 (8 laps)
“It’s a real shame that we could not proceed to Q2, when we had the potential to easily progress. I was on a very good lap, good enough to make it through, when I had to lift for a yellow flag [for Pierre Gasly’s stricken car]. Of course, you need to back off for safety reasons, but that costs you a few tenths straight away. Unfortunately, that meant the lap was gone, and we missed out by a very small margin. It’s disappointing, especially because we felt much better today than yesterday — FP3 was very positive, and I really believed we had the potential to do a good job in qualifying. But that’s racing; sometimes you’re the unlucky one who catches the flag.”