Max Verstappen won dominantly, finishing seven seconds ahead of Kimi Antonelli to take his first win at the Singapore Grand Prix. The Dutchman looked unstoppable, taking his third victory in seven days, finishing ahead of the Mercedes driver who is now on the brink of becoming the youngest ever champion at the next race in Austin.
Verstappen fended off the Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton at the start, which proved key from then remained ahead as he looked quicker throughout each stage of the Grand Prix as he took his first victory in Marina Bay. But Ferrari will once again face questions about strategy calls.
Leclerc got a better start than Verstappen off the line and challenged down the inside as they approached Turn One. Verstappen squeezed him tight towards the pit wall and, with their entry to the first corner so compromised, Leclerc eventually backed off, and the four-time champion could claim the corner.
From then on, despite the radio failure, Verstappen led every lap as he continued his dominance with his third victory in eight days, having also won yesterday’s sprint race.
Antonelli finished the race third, fifteen seconds ahead of both McLarens, which means if teammate George Russell finishes ninth or lower in a fortnight’s time, he will be champion. Russell finished the race in ninth after coming from the back following a grid penalty for a power unit change.
Lewis Hamilton looked like the stronger of the Ferraris, but the team’s decision to go long and try to one-stop the race may have been the right call. But the seven-time champion overruled the team and switched to a two-stop, resulting in him losing position to Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
Verstappen, who wins his first Singapore Grand Prix: “It has 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, but it worked out so of course very happy to win here.”
Leclerc, speaking after finishing second, said, “We were quite strong at the beginning of the race, and we started to degrade a bit more on the first stint. But then we did a slightly different strategy to Max [Verstappen] with the virtual safety car; I believed in it until the very end.”
Speaking about the championship, Antonelli told Sky Sports, “feel like we’re doing a great job. At the end, you look at the season, and we’ve always been there. Obviously we’ve had a great car, and now we’re trying to understand this new package. I’m very proud of the team this weekend, and we’ve pushed through the difficulties and now we’ve started to see the light at the end of the tunnel, so it’s just a matter of time.”
Ferrari’s other strange strategy call was not asking Leclerc to release Hamilton to maximise his pace, a decision that was questioned by Hamilton from the car. Piastri was passed by Norris when he was forced into an extra second stop because of a puncture.
Hamilton felt he was getting held up, and when the Virtual Safety Car came out for Stroll’s stoppage, Ferrari called him to pit and double-stack behind Leclerc, but Hamilton decided to stay out. He said, “Sorry, boys. 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.”
A virtual safety car was called on lap 39 and Leclerc and Antonelli, who had chased the Ferraris closely from the start from his fourth place on the grid, took the opportunity for a cheap pit stop. But not Hamilton on older tyres, resulting in him ultimately losing places to Leclerc, Norris and Antonelli.
This left him vulnerable for the remainder of the race on ageing soft tyres as Leclerc quickly caught and overtook him, but that was the least of his problems.
Norris pulled nine seconds ahead of his teammate while Hamilton finished three seconds behind the Australian. Liam Lawson finished the race best of the midfield as he finished a second ahead of Nico Hulkenberg; the duo spent much of the race battling as Russell and Isack Hadjar made their way through the field.
Russell started from last after a power unit change, and Hadjar’s nightmare technical issues on Saturday meant he failed to set a time in qualifying. But that will be considered a decent result given where they started the race; Russell’s hopes of the championship are effectively over, as it’s become mathematically certain that his teammates to lose over the next six races.
Pierre Gasly finished eleventh as the Alpine driver led the lapped cars as he finished a lap down. Gasly was almost three seconds ahead of Haas duo, with Ollie Bearman finishing the race twenty seconds ahead of his teammate Esteban Ocon. Ocon pulled off a bold move to get past Carlos Sainz, with Arvid Lindblad nearly three seconds behind.
Fernando Alonso finished a lap ahead of Sergio Perez, with teammate Valtteri Bottas and Alex Albon another lap down. Albon retired but completed more distance than Bottas, so he is classified ahead of the Cadillac.
Retirements due to reliability were Lance Stroll, Franco Colapinto at half distance because of a driveline issue and Gabriel Bortoletto, who stopped on lap seven with a gearbox issue.
Related
- Singapore GP – Qualifying Result
- SINGAPORE GP – Max Verstappen takes pole by a tenth and a half ahead of both Ferrari’s
- Singapore GP – Sprint Result
- SINGAPORE GP – Max Verstappen wins by two-and-a-half seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton following a dramatic sprint race
- Singapore GP – Sprint Qualifying Result
- SINGAPORE GP – Max Verstappen beats George Russell by a tenth to secure sprint pole
- SINGAPORE GP – George Russell fastest by almost two tenths from Charles Leclerc in practice
- Welcome to the Singapore Grand Prix – 08/10/2026
