Max Verstappen achieved a perfect Singapore Grand Prix weekend with a sprint pole, sprint win, pole for the main race and finally Grand Prix victory. The Red Bull Racing driver led home Charles Leclerc and Kimi Antonelli to the chequered flag at Marina Bay.
Verstappen withstood an early challenge from Leclerc and proved quicker over the remainder of the race.
Strategy cost Lewis Hamilton dear, allowing Antonelli to finish on the podium and further extend his championship lead – to the extent that he will get a first chance to take the drivers’ title in Austin, the scene of United States Grand Prix. Main rival and Mercedes teammate George Russell fought to a lowly ninth after starting P19 on the grid.
Front-row starter Charles Leclerc had the best getaway at the Marina Bay Circuit, but polesitter Verstappen ever so narrowly held him off in Turn 1. Lewis Hamilton maintained third position despite using the medium compound unlike his rivals on softs, followed by Antonelli, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri – the order of the top six on the grid was unchanged.
Leclerc remained within close distance of Verstappen until Gabriel Bortoleto stopped on the start/finish straight with a gearbox issue, causing a VSC, but no driver pitted with the Audi potentially blocking the pitlane exit.
By lap 11, Hamilton’s gap to Leclerc had reached three seconds, with Lewis closely followed by Antonelli and the McLarens. However, that was when Charles started lapping half a second slower than Max. On lap 18, he was four seconds down.
That was when, despite having started on mediums, Hamilton was the first driver to pit, switching to softs. On the previous lap, Lewis had lapped 1.8 seconds slower than Max and 1.4 seconds slower than Charles.
Antonelli was the first frontrunner to move from softs to mediums on lap 23. Leclerc did likewise on the next lap and narrowly rejoined ahead of his Ferrari teammate, who was not overly happy to be stuck behind – he complained several times on the radio.
“I feel something leaking between my feet,” Antonelli reported on lap 32 – but Mercedes was not concerned – as Verstappen pitted, safely rejoining in the lead.
On lap 35, the Red Bull racer enjoyed a five-second advantage over Leclerc. Hamilton was seven seconds down, Antonelli eleven seconds adrift, with the McLarens of Norris and Piastri respectively 21 seconds and 28 seconds away from the leader, after a 4.2 seconds pitstop for Oscar.
The race was neutralised by the virtual safety car on lap 39 as Lance Stroll pulled aside with a clutch issue. Leclerc and Antonelli made the most of it to switch back from mediums to softs, but Hamilton interestingly stayed out on used softs.
“Mate, I have no f***ing brakes! I just went straight! The pedal was so long!” shouted Antonelli, as Piastri pitted again on lap 41 due to a slow puncture.
Having rejoined from his second pitstop ten seconds behind Hamilton, Leclerc caught his teammate in just five laps and quickly overtook him. He was 15 seconds down on Verstappen, who was experiencing radio issues, with 15 laps to the flag.
Leclerc brought this down to 8.3 seconds on lap 55 of 62, and yet Verstappen comfortably prevailed by 7.3 seconds.
Struggling on his 44-lap stint on softs, Hamilton came under pressure from Norris, but Antonelli picked up the pieces, overtaking both cars on his way to the podium. The seven-time world champion dropped down to sixth under the chequered flag, behind Piastri.
Starting from P19 following a power unit change, Russell made steady progress through the pack, although slow, was unable to break into the top ten before pitstops allowed him to do so.
The Mercedes racer was the last driver to change tyres, doing so during the VSC, but the timing was not right and the neutralisation ended shortly after he entered the pitlane.
Russell therefore rejoined behind Liam Lawson, Nico Hulkenberg and Pierre Gasly, only overtaking the Alpine to finish ninth.
The Alpine driver had qualified an impressive seventh but lost two positions to Lawson and Hulkenberg at the start and eventually dropped out of the top ten altogether, to Isack Hadjar’s benefit. The Red Bull driver scored one point from a pitlane start, after a tricky Saturday when he was struck by mechanical issues.
Oliver Bearman made the most moves, with breathtaking wheel-to-wheel racing against Haas teammate Esteban Ocon and a bold down-the-inside overtake on Carlos Sainz, went unrewarded in P12. Arvid Lindblad, Fernando Alonso and Sergio Perez followed.
Valtteri Bottas was nearly lapped by his Cadillac teammate, while Alpine’s Franco Colapinto retired due to a driveline issue. Alexander Albon also unable to finish the race.
So congratulations to Max Verstappen. In his 250th race in Formula 1, the Red Bull driver finally achieved race victory at the Singapore Grand Prix.
Singapore Grand Prix, race results:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Ford 1:42:00.785
2 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +7.335s
3 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +24.573s
4 Lando Norris McLaren-Mercedes +40.506s
5 Oscar Piastri McLaren-Mercedes +49.644s
6 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +53.188s
7 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls-Ford +81.666s
8 Nico Hulkenberg Audi +83.386s
9 George Russell Mercedes +84.677s
10 Isack Hadjar Red Bull-Ford +90.862s
11 Pierre Gasly Alpine-Mercedes +1 lap
12 Oliver Bearman Haas-Ferrari +1 lap
13 Esteban Ocon Haas-Ferrari +1 lap
14 Carlos Sainz Williams-Mercedes +1 lap
15 Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls-Ford +1 lap
16 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin-Honda +1 lap
17 Sergio Perez Cadillac-Ferrari +2 laps
Alexander Albon Williams-Mercedes DNF
Valtteri Bottas Cadillac-Ferrari DNF/+3 laps
Lance Stroll Aston Martin-Honda DNF
Franco Colapinto Alpine-Mercedes DNF
Gabriel Bortoleto Audi DNF
Max Verstappen put in an assured drive to take victory in the Singapore Grand Prix, the Red Bull driver holding the lead throughout the hot and humid encounter to seal his first-ever Grand Prix win at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.
After defending against Charles Leclerc into the first corner, Verstappen ensured that he emerged in P1 and, while the Ferrari initially remained on his tail, the four-time World Champion soon built up a significant gap at the front.
The mid-race pit stops phase did little to change Verstappen’s commanding run, the Dutchman enjoying a smooth stop as he switched from the soft to the medium tyres.
From there onwards he was untroubled at the front and, despite suffering some radio issues that resulted in the team having to use the pit board for communication, Verstappen ultimately clinched his 73rd career win on his 250th Grand Prix start.
Leclerc held onto P2, crossing the line 7.3 seconds behind, while Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli completed the podium in third – a result that would extend the youngster’s championship lead further.
The McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were fourth and fifth, ahead of the other Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton. Liam Lawson claimed P7 to add to Racing Bulls’ tally, with Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg just behind in eighth.
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Mercedes’ George Russell and Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar put in good recovery drives from the back of the field and the pit lane respectively, the pair rounding out the top 10 to claim P9 and P10 respectively.
Pierre Gasly just missed out for Alpine in 11th, ahead of the Haas duo of Ollie Bearman and Esteban Ocon, Williams’ Carlos Sainz and Racing Bulls’ Arvid Lindblad.
Fernando Alonso brought his Aston Martin home in P16, followed by Cadillac’s Sergio Perez. Alex Albon was classified as P18 for Williams despite retiring in the closing stages, while the other Cadillac of Valtteri Bottas rounded out the order in P19.
Three drivers retired from the event, with Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll suffering a suspected clutch issue, Alpine’s Franco Colapinto experiencing a driveline problem and Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto experiencing what appeared to be a gearbox problem.
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Max Verstappen expressed his pride and satisfaction after claiming a long-awaited Singapore Grand Prix win – the result coming in the Dutchman’s 10th attempt.
Verstappen had scored four podium finishes around the Marina Bay Street Circuit in previous years, including back-to-back P2 results in 2024 and 2025, but victory eluded him.
That was until this weekend, where he proved to be the class of the field across the Sprint and main Grand Prix, with P1 on Sunday night meaning from the current F1 calendar, he has only yet to win at the new-for-2026 Madring.
Speaking after the triumph, which also came during his 250th Grand Prix start, Verstappen smiled: “It’s taken a while, but I think this race was very good.
“We had pace when we needed to have it on the soft tyre and on the medium, even though I think the medium tyre for everyone was a bit more of a struggle.
“It worked out, so of course I’m very happy to win here.”
Verstappen set up his drive to victory with a stern defence against Ferrari rival Charles Leclerc at the start, admitting that his getaway was “just good enough”, before building and controlling an advantage at the head of the field.
It also gives Verstappen and Red Bull successive wins, following their breakthrough first victory of the 2026 season last time out at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.
Reflecting on the recent upturn, which came after significant updates in Azerbaijan, Verstappen added: “I think the last few races have been really positive for us, and it’s just great to see. We have a lot of motivation in the team to try and deliver even more results.
“It’s a really good group of people. I really enjoy working with them, and hopefully we can have a bit more fun until the end of the year.”
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Charles Leclerc felt that he “gave it all” during his drive to second place at the Singapore Grand Prix and was left with no regrets, but suggested that Ferrari are still lacking pace compared to rival teams.
Although he came close to snatching the lead from Max Verstappen at lights out, he was squeezed to the inside and bailed out of committing to an overtake, forcing him to remain tucked behind the Dutchman throughout the first stint.
The early pressure Leclerc put on Verstappen faded along with his tyre performance, and he eventually pitted at the end of Lap 24 to marginally stay ahead of team mate Lewis Hamilton, who was frustrated to not find a way through.
A Virtual Safety Car gave Leclerc another chance to take on fresh tyres and Ferrari helped him reclaim P2 from Hamilton, where he stayed for the remainder of the race before crossing the line seven seconds behind Verstappen.
“We were quite strong at the beginning of the race, then we started degrading a bit more in the first stint,” Leclerc explained. “Then we did a slightly different strategy to Max with the [Virtual] Safety Car.
“I believed in it until the very end, but I pushed a lot at the beginning of that last stint and degraded a bit more than the others. I gave it all and I don’t regret anything. I don’t think there was much more to do today apart from maybe [be] a bit more aggressive at the start. That’s the way it is.”
While his post-race radio message included an admission that Ferrari “just weren’t fast enough”, Leclerc also seemed satisfied with their alternative strategy as he stated: “At least we tried something different.”
The result marked his first Grand Prix podium since Round 10 in Belgium, rounding out a wholly positive weekend for the Monegasque after he similarly placed in the top three during Saturday’s Sprint.
Asked whether he stands by previous comments relating to Ferrari’s loss of pace in recent rounds, Leclerc said: “I still feel that way. However, it’s true that we brought some small new parts to the car which maybe helped us to do another step forward.
“It’s not enough. We’ll push to the end and we’ve still got to bring some new things to the car to be at the level. I think today we had good pace overall.”
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/i-dont-regret-anything-leclerc-gave-it-all-to-secure-p2-in-singapore.4TemKhORmVtudPgWO2Uiw4
Kimi Antonelli amusingly appeared to be taken by surprise when informed that his podium finish in the Singapore Grand Prix has put him on the brink of clinching this year’s World Championship title.
Antonelli’s top-three result, combined with Mercedes team mate George Russell’s run to ninth place from the back of the grid, means the Italian is now 102 points clear at the top of the standings.
With six rounds remaining, and 150 points still up for grabs, Antonelli can put the title beyond doubt if he leaves the next round at Austin’s Circuit of The Americas 125 points or more ahead of his nearest rival.
Told about the title picture after following Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc home at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, Antonelli said: “Can I? Really? Let’s not worry about that! Let’s try to do the best weekends possible and finish the job.”
Antonelli did the latest part of that job by climbing from fourth to third in Sunday’s race – taking advantage when the Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton and McLaren of Lando Norris got involved in a scrap during the closing stages.
That also underlined the progress he and Mercedes appeared to make in further understanding the team’s latest car upgrades over the course of the weekend, while Russell reverted to an older package.
Reflecting on the race and weekend as a whole, Antonelli added: “It was not easy out there. I felt very good on the soft [tyre], but on the medium I struggled a lot. Then on the soft the pace was very good at the end; it was very, very good, so that’s a positive.
“However, there’s still lots of work to do. The team did a great job on trying to turn [things] around, especially the car. I think we can be very happy and proud of the job we did, especially looking at how we started the weekend.
“I try to do the best with what I have, try to help the team as much as possible, and really just try to do the best job as possible, and trying to on my side even overcome some difficulties with the car.
“I can say that we’re finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with this package, and it’s just a matter of understanding which one is the best window, how to put the car in the best window, in order to extract the maximum out of the package.”
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Lando Norris admits that he is “not happy with a P4” finish in the Singapore Grand Prix, with the reigning World Champion demanding more from McLaren as they “want to fight for wins”.
The Briton was left fifth on the grid for the 62-lap race on the streets of Marina Bay, a position he retained through the opening phase as he closely followed Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari.
Norris made a mid-race pit stop for fresh tyres, jumping Antonelli and pressuring Hamilton for the final step on the podium as the Ferrari driver was on worn soft tyres.
Having failed to overtake Hamilton at Turn 1, Norris lost a position to Antonelli before eventually getting the better of Hamilton to finish fourth.
“I can look at it in two ways,” said Norris. “One, it’s not a bad result for us. I think P4 is as good as we were going to get.
“I could have done a better job to fight more for the P3, done a better job fighting against Lewis and positioning my car a bit better and not going off and allowing Kimi to come through. Otherwise, a P4 is the best we could achieve today. I’m happy we managed to do that but we want more than what we had today.”
Norris finished 16 seconds adrift of the podium but was 40s behind race winner Max Verstappen, with McLaren’s form from the summer, where Norris claimed two victories, having been lost.
“Red Bull seem like the team to beat and have clearly improved the car a lot over the last few weeks, and we’ve just slipped to the back of the top four,” said Norris.
“We’re the fourth fastest team, which means that if we finished P4 today we still did a good job and overachieved let’s say in terms of car result.
“I’m not happy with a P4, I want a podium and we want to fight for wins. We need to keep trying to improve and bringing upgrades to make the car better.”
Team mate Oscar Piastri was able to salvage P5 at the chequered flag, having overtaken Hamilton on the penultimate lap, with the Australian having to make an unscheduled stop mid-race with a slow puncture.
“It felt pretty reasonable I would say. I think we just didn’t quite have enough pace,” said Piastri.
“We couldn’t go with Max and Charles [Leclerc], I think Kimi was a little bit quicker than us as well. There wasn’t really too much we could do other than where we ended up.”
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/we-want-to-fight-for-wins-norris-not-happy-with-a-p4-finish-in-singapore-gp.7KagAh8STy3D0lYmIV5fOx
Lewis Hamilton has taken responsibility for his strategy in Formula 1’s Singapore Grand Prix, after a decision not to pit under a virtual safety car cost him dear.
The VSC was called into action by race control on lap 39 when Lance Stroll pulled aside due to a suspected clutch issue in his Aston Martin.
At that stage of the race, Hamilton had already done 21 laps on softs, while Leclerc was on a 15-lap medium stint – but it was the Monegasque only who made the most of the VSC for a cheap second pitstop.
The Ferraris, which were running second and third, could easily have been double-stacked given they were 4.4 seconds apart and going through Turns 10-11 when the VSC was enforced.
As it happens, it was Hamilton himself who decided to stay out for a mammoth 44-lap stint on softs. This was a failure, as he collapsed to sixth, even behind Oscar Piastri, who had to stop after the VSC due to a slow puncture.
The seven-time world champion was nearly 46 seconds down on team-mate Leclerc on the chequered flag, with his tactical call therefore costing him about 41.5 seconds.
“Sorry, boys,” Hamilton said on the radio after the race. “I let you down today with that strategy. My call, and I lost us valuable points. I’ll try and make up for it in the next one. Great job with the pitstop though.”
Racing engineer Carlo Santi replied: “Understood, thank you Lewis.”
Team principal Fred Vasseur explained to F1 TV that Ferrari split the cars at the start, with front-row Leclerc on softs instead of mediums, in order to have a shot at snatching the lead away from polesitter Max Verstappen – which the Monegasque very nearly did.
Answering for the decision under VSC, Vasseur added: “The call was to pit two [cars] and Lewis decided to stay on track.
“I think it was a mistake overall; we would have gone for P2-P3 today, but he apologised in the in-lap for the strategy that we asked him to call and he didn’t.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/lewis-hamilton-takes-blame-for-poor-singapore-gp-strategy/10864338/