The end of qualifying yesterday was delayed by a Carlos Sainz crash at the final corner after suffering an unrecoverable snap of oversteer on cold tyres just as he was preparing to start his first flying lap of Q3.
His Ferrari spun backwards in the barriers, triggering a red flag before most drivers had set a time, turning the battle for pole into effectively a single-lap shootout.
Norris, who has looked in control around the tricky Singapore streets all weekend, made good on his promise through practice to set the benchmark at 1 minutes 29.525 seconds.
Verstappen, recovering from a complicated Friday that triggered Red Bull Racing to make sweeping changes to his car set-up, ran him close but ultimately fell short by 0.203 seconds.
“We’ve been good all weekend,” Norris said. “The car’s been amazing all weekend, so I felt good and felt comfortable just to go out and put the lap in.
“The car was still tricky to drive but very quick, and that just allows me to drive at 99 per cent and still deliver.”
Verstappen was unusually pleased to qualify second, the Dutchman having rebounded strongly not only from a dire Friday that made the top 10 appear unlikely but also from a mini slump that’s seen him fail to qualify higher than sixth at the last two grands prix.
“I think the whole of qualifying actually went quite well,” he said, “We managed to improve the car run after run, already with FP3.
“I’m happy to be on the front row if you look at where we came from yesterday. Q3 was tough.
“I want to say also a big thank you to the team for continuing to push throughout the weekend to make the car better for me.”
Lewis Hamilton qualified an unexpected third after Mercedes had looked well off the pace on Friday, the team struggling to mate the car to the peculiar demands of the Singapore streets in oppressive conditions.
The Briton found his car came alive as the soft tyres were bolted on and as day turned to night, delivering him an unlikely lofty starting position.
“I’m not saying it’s a surprise, but through the weekend so far we were looking - I was looking - particularly very poor,” he said.
“We were 1.2 seconds off these guys. We made some more changes and got into this session, and it was like night and day - such a big difference.
“The car was all of a sudden alive, and I was able to go where I wanted to go.”
Teammate George Russell backed up in fourth to form an all-Mercedes front row.
Hamilton and Russell were also undoubtedly helped by Ferrari, a pre-weekend favourite, flopping at the crunch, with Sainz crashing out and Charles Leclerc having his only lap time deleted for exceeding track limits, leaving them 10th and ninth respectively.
Oscar Piastri slotted into fifth, the Australian lamenting that he couldn’t string together his fastest lap in what became single-shot qualifying - had he replicated his fastest time for Q2, he would’ve been comfortably second alongside his teammate on the front row.
Nico Hülkenberg was excellent for Haas to qualify sixth ahead of Fernando Alonso and RB’s Yuki Tsunoda, with Leclerc and Sainz completing the top 10.
Alex Albon led Williams teammate Franco Colapinto, the Argentine again impressing by pushing the Thai driver close.
Sergio Pérez bombed out of qualifying 13th for Red Bull Racing, fast undoing the credit points earnt for a competitive showing in Azerbaijan last weekend and massively increasing the chances of McLaren adding to its new championship lead over Red Bull Racing on the constructors table.
Kevin Magnussen, returning from his one-race suspension, will line up 14th ahead of Esteban Ocon.
Daniel Ricciardo was the first to be eliminated in Q1, qualifying 16th on what could be the Australian’s final weekend as a grand prix driver, with speculation having intensified this week that RB could move to replace him with reserve driver Liam Lawson for the rest of the season ahead of a full season for the Kiwi in 2025.
His biggest grid gap to teammate Tsunoda since May’s Miami Grand Prix won’t have helped his cause.
Lance Stroll underwhelmed in 17th for Aston Martin ahead of Pierre Gasly and teammates Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu for perennial backmarker Sauber.