The times at the Istanbul Park circuit, hosting a Formula One race for the first time since 2011, were largely meaningless.
Charles Leclerc put Ferrari on pole position for Sunday's US Grand Prix after Red Bull's triple Formula One world champion Max Verstappen had a faster lap deleted for exceeding track limits and dropped to sixth on the grid.
Drivers watched in amusement as the monitor lizard, a familiar sight in Singapore, reacted to the chase with a sudden burst of speed after sauntering onto the circuit shortly after the start of the daylight session.
In a race of safety cars and surprises, Verstappen's former team mate Pierre Gasly made a first podium appearance in second place for Red Bull-owned Toro Rosso, a rare Honda-powered one-two.
The pole was the second of the Dutch 22-year-old's Formula One career and the first in Brazil for engine partners Honda since the late triple champion Ayrton Senna in 1991 with McLaren.
A weekend that began at the top of the timesheets for Max Verstappen ended with the Dutchman out of the points and in a war of words with Ferrari rivals after a nightmare Belgian Formula One Grand Prix.
Dutch teenager Max Verstappen became Formula One's youngest race winner on Sunday in a sensational Spanish Grand Prix that saw dominant Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg collide on the opening lap.
Drivers returned to the pits, under a darkening sky, with engineers using torches in the garages before back-up generators came on and the session resumed about an hour later.
Lewis Hamilton shed pent-up tears of joy after ending a 945-day wait for a win with a record ninth British Grand Prix victory in front of his home fans on Sunday.
Oscar Piastri won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and sent McLaren top of the constructors' standings in a race that finished with a virtual safety car after a penultimate lap collision between Ferrari's Carlos Sainz and Red Bull's Sergio Perez.
Carlos Sainz will start Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix from pole position after penalties reshuffled the grid
Formula One championship leader Max Verstappen lifted himself into a league of his own as he beat title rival Lewis Hamilton to pole position with a blinding lap in qualifying for the French Grand Prix at Circuit Paul Ricard.
Red Bull's Mexican Sergio Perez was a distant third, struggling with dehydration after a water bottle failure in the Texas heat.
McLaren's Lando Norris dominated the Singapore Grand Prix from start to finish on Sunday to take another chunk out of Max Verstappen's Formula One championship lead.
Charles Leclerc won the US Grand Prix in a Ferrari one-two with Carlos Sainz on Sunday as Formula One championship leader Max Verstappen dealt Lando Norris a significant setback in their title battle.
Seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton won the inaugural Qatar Grand Prix for Mercedes on Sunday to cut Max Verstappen's overall Formula One lead to eight points with two races remaining.
Seven times world champion Lewis Hamilton hunted down Max Verstappen to win the Sao Paulo Grand Prix for Mercedes on Sunday and slash his Red Bull rival's Formula One lead to 14 points in one of the greatest drives of his career.
Hyundai's French rally driver Adrien Fourmaux was handed a 10,000 euro fine, with another 20,000 suspended, in Sweden on Sunday, however, for swearing in a live post-race broadcast interview.
Formula One leader Max Verstappen passed Mercedes rival Lewis Hamilton on the penultimate lap to win a tense French Grand Prix for Red Bull on Sunday and canter 12 points clear at the top.
Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton said on his team radio, "This has been manipulated," after the Briton was passed by Max Verstappen on the final lap of Sunday's controversial season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen won Red Bull's home Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday while Lewis Hamilton suffered his first race retirement since 2016 and lost the Formula One championship lead to Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel.
Lando Norris led a McLaren front row sweep in qualifying for the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Saturday
McLaren are leading the constructor's championship but are only 29 points ahead of Ferrari, with Leclerc an obvious threat and team mate Carlos Sainz qualifying fifth and Mercedes' George Russell sixth.
World champion Lewis Hamilton, back in the car after his COVID-19-enforced absence at last week's Sakhir Grand Prix, was third but only 0.086 seconds off the pace.
The final phase of qualifying was halted, with only Piastri and Haas' Nico Hulkenberg having set times, when Sainz slammed backwards into the barriers at the final corner as he prepared to start his flying lap.
Red Bull driver Max Verstappen has received a flurry of criticism from the Formula One world, including legendary driver Niki Lauda who asked him to consult a psychiatrist after the teenage driver was involved in a three-car collision in last week's Belgian Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen was fastest on the opening day of practice for the Belgian Formula One Grand Prix ahead of Red Bull team mate Daniel Ricciardo as world champions Mercedes chose to focus on race preparation. Verstappen set a benchmark time of one minute 48.085 seconds, 0.256 quicker than Ricciardo on a hot and sunny day at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit.
McLaren's Lando Norris took pole position for the Qatar Grand Prix sprint on Friday with Mercedes' George Russell denying the Formula One leaders a front row.
Leclerc was 11 seconds clear with seven laps to go and 8.3 ahead with five remaining as the massed ranks of 'tifosi' willed him on.
Mondo Duplantis was named the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year, while American gymnast Simone Biles bagged the top women's honour at the Laureus World Sports Awards.
McLaren could clinch their first constructors' crown since 1998 on Sunday if they outscore Ferrari by 21 points at the Qatar F1 Grand Prix.
Lando Norris roared to his second successive pole position, and third in four races, in a McLaren front row sweep with team mate Oscar Piastri
The pole was Leclerc's seventh of the season and 16th of his career.
Lewis Hamilton will bring down the curtain on his Mercedes career in Abu Dhabi on Sunday as his past and future Formula One teams, McLaren and Ferrari, fight for a constructors' title to end years of waiting.
Mercedes' George Russell celebrated a surprise Austrian Grand Prix win on Sunday after Red Bull's triple world champion Max Verstappen and McLaren's Lando Norris collided late in the race
Seven times world champion Lewis Hamilton was seventh for Mercedes and Lance Stroll collected the final point for Aston Martin.
Hamilton said he had not been feeling well on Thursday and Friday, when he was also up until midnight working with his engineers.
Sebastian Vettel blamed Red Bull's Max Verstappen on Sunday for a Japanese Grand Prix tangle that dealt a huge blow to the Ferrari driver's fading Formula One title hopes.
Formula One is braced for the next episode of the Max Verstappen show as Red Bull's teen sensation heads for Ferrari's home circuit only days after making the Italian team's drivers see red. While triple world champion Lewis Hamilton is aiming for his 50th grand prix win on Sunday, to become the first since Argentine Juan Manuel Fangio in the 1950s to win three years in a row at Monza, Verstappen will be the talk of the town.
The world of esports came to the rescue in the absence of a race in Melbourne or indeed of any single-seater series with the Formula E and IndyCar calendars also ravaged by the fast-spreading virus. Red Bull's Verstappen finished 11th in an 'All-star Esports battle' while McLaren's Norris finished sixth in another virtual race.
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