I don’t think there’s a more beautiful track in Formula One than the Marina Bay Street Circuit in the heart of Singapore. While it looks beautiful, it’s also one of the most difficult and intimidating tracks on the calendar due to its complexity, tight corners, chicanes, and the oddly tricky final corner before the start/finish line.
The Singapore Grand Prix always brings the action and some intense moments due to the extreme heat and humidity — not only outside the car, but inside as well. In recent years, we’ve seen drivers develop heat sickness after the race due to the staggering 50°C to 60°C of heat inside the cockpit, and this weekend is the most difficult of the season due to the sprint weekend, doubling up on sessions.
Sprint Qualifying
Verstappen showed impressive pace and has been all week through each free practice session, putting himself P1 in the first session of sprint qualifying. George Russell was seeking redemption after a nightmare end to his race in Malaysia last weekend, and was showing signs of speed in the SQ1 (sprint qualifying session 1), placing his Mercedes in P2 by less than a tenth behind Verstappen. Ferrari was falling a bit short with Lewis Hamilton in P3 and Charles Leclerc in P4; Hamilton almost three-tenths off Verstappen and Leclerc over half a second. Isack Hadjar had a bit of a rocky start to SQ1, but crossed the line in P5, closely followed by both McLarens: Lando Norris in P6 and Oscar Piastri in P7. Nico Hülkenberg had a phenomenal start to the session, bringing his Audi to P8, followed by a struggling Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli in P9, and Pierre Gasly rounding out SQ1 in P10.
In the second round, the tides have turned in favour of Ferrari. Lewis Hamilton found a bit of oomph and pace, bringing himself from P3 to P1 with teammate Leclerc finding pace to bring himself to P2. Lando Norris pulled himself out of P6 to climb to P3, with George Russell falling off slightly and dropping to P4. Verstappen had a rough time, dropping to P5 with teammate Hadjar close behind in P6. Kimi Antonelli has been struggling to find his rhythm all week, and that trend continued with his pace being over half a second off, exiting SQ2 in P7. Oscar Piastri also struggled his way through the session in P8, followed by the Racing Bull of Liam Lawson in P9 and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly in P10.
Final session of Sprint Qualifying, and Max Verstappen said enough was enough. Putting the hammer down, Verstappen set a staggering lap that would solidify pole position, making this his first career pole position in any qualifying session at Singapore. George Russell pushed his Mercedes hard in an attempt to overthrow the Dutchman but came up a tenth short, placing himself P2 with the Ferrari of Leclerc breathing down his neck in P3. McLaren found some last-minute pace, and Oscar Piastri was the faster of the two, crossing the line P4 with teammate Norris in P5. Lewis Hamilton dropped off slightly, bringing himself to P6, with Kimi Antonelli in P7. Isack Hadjar had a rough final stint to qualify P8, followed by Liam Lawson in P9 and Pierre Gasly in P10.
Sprint Race
One, two, three, four, five red lights in Singapore, and the sprint was underway! It was a wet and rainy start, with George Russell getting the better of Verstappen heading into Turn 1, taking the inside line to seize the lead away from the Red Bull. Lewis Hamilton had a rocketing start, jumping from P6 to P3 at the entry of Turn 1, with a beautiful last-minute move to the inside on teammate Leclerc. Hamilton is known as a wet-weather master and is THE driver to watch in these conditions.
Disaster strikes once again for the Mercedes of George Russell on the exit of Turn 19. The white lines around the track are beyond slippery in wet conditions, and Russell ran just a tad too wide, touching the white line and losing grip of his Mercedes, sending him spinning into the pit wall, destroying his front and rear suspension, abruptly ending his session and adding to his streak of bad luck. “******* sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry,” exclaimed a disappointed Russell.
Fans were focused on the battle between Verstappen and Hamilton, but the real race was behind two drivers who are phenomenal in the wet: Oliver Bearman and Pierre Gasly. Bearman threw his HAAS down the inside of the Alpine into Turn 1, slightly overdriving the corner, giving Gasly the ability to defend. However, Bearman found a bit of grip and managed to stay beside Gasly on the outside of Turn 2, giving him the momentum to put his HAAS on the inside of Turn 3. It was a drag race heading towards the right-hander of Turn 5, and Bearman would take a hard-fought P8 from Gasly.
More collisions on track, this time involving three cars and what seemed to be a chain reaction. Alex Albon drove his Williams into the back of the Audi of Gabriel Bortoletto, causing Albon to essentially stop in place, throwing off the Cadillac of Valtteri Bottas, which caused him to drive into the back of the Williams and completely destroy his front wing. These impacts ended the day for all three drivers: Albon (Williams), Bortoletto (Audi), and Bottas (Cadillac).
It was a fight for third between four drivers: Leclerc in P3 being hounded by the McLarens of Piastri and Norris, with Antonelli closing the gap to the three in his Mercedes. Team orders seemed to be thrown out as the McLarens started to battle against each other, giving Leclerc some breathing room and giving Antonelli the opportunity to close the gap even more, but Antonelli seemed to be biding his time. Things were getting a bit sketchy when, out of nowhere and at the very last minute, Lando Norris attempted an inside pass through Turn 5 on Piastri, overdriving the corner and straight into the side of his teammate, taking both McLarens out and giving Antonelli both positions, moving himself up to P4 — a silly mistake from Norris caused McLaren to miss out on great points for the constructors’ championship.
Exiting Turn 19 to the checkered flag, Max Verstappen would take his first Sprint Race victory of 2026, followed by Lewis Hamilton in P2 and just barely a P3 for Charles Leclerc. Kimi Antonelli drove to P4, with Liam Lawson finishing an impressive P5. Oliver Bearman had a spectacular race, bringing his HAAS to P6, followed by Nico Hulkenberg in P7, Lando Norris P8, Pierre Gasly P9 and Esteban Ocon in P10.
Qualifying
On a more positive note, Lewis Hamilton was showing quick pace early, crossing the line P1 exiting Q1, with teammate Charles Leclerc right behind in P2, and Lando Norris just one-thousandth behind Leclerc in P3. It seemed like Liam Lawson found some extra confidence in the Sprint Race from yesterday, placing himself an astounding P4 at the end of Q1. After his accident with teammate Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri was struggling throughout the session, finishing P5, with Nico Hülkenberg on his tail in P6, along with Pierre Gasly in P7. After an impressive Sprint Qualifying and Race, the pace of Verstappen seemed slightly odd, but it’s early; P8 for Verstappen, with Franco Colapinto in P9 and Arvid Lindblad rounding out the top 10 in Q1.
Second session, and Lewis Hamilton was still top of the charts, maintaining pole position throughout Q2. There was a man on a mission, and that man was Max Verstappen. After finding over half a second of pace between sessions, Verstappen put himself in P2, only one tenth behind Hamilton; we were in for a Q3 battle for P1. Lando Norris maintained his P3 position, with Leclerc just behind him in P4. Kimi Antonelli, who was P12 exiting Q1, managed to find some confidence in his Mercedes and jumped 7 positions to P5. Oscar Piastri dropped a position to P6, and George Russell, who was P13 at the end of Q1, jumped six positions to P7. Arvid Lindblad drove to a P8 result, with Pierre Gasly in P9, and Liam Lawson made it into Q3 by rounding out the Top 10.
Final round of qualifying, and the battle was on. Verstappen vs. Hamilton—a slight call back to their phenomenal battles throughout 2021, both drivers ready to give it their all for P1. Verstappen set a blistering lap on his first out lap, giving Hamilton a benchmark of what to shoot for. After his first attempt, Hamilton was just one tenth short of Verstappen, so it was time to give it another shot. With the lap looking good, Hamilton would overdrive the car through Turn 16, causing a severe snap of oversteer, losing time and losing out on P1, giving Verstappen pole position. Fans thought Hamilton had P2 secured, but suddenly Charles Leclerc began setting purple sectors—purple meaning fastest of anyone. Purple through sector one, green through sector two (green meaning personal best), Leclerc was hungry for the first position on the front row. After a well-driven final sector, Leclerc would still come up short by a margin of five hundredths of a second, solidifying P2 and giving Hamilton P3.
Kimi Antonelli found more pace, bringing his Mercedes home in P4. Lando Norris maintained a good performance throughout the session, securing P5, and the other Mercedes of George Russell recovered to a respectable P6. However, after having to replace the engine from the last race, as well as other components, Russell had a penalty to serve, bringing him from P6 down to P20. The rough weekend continued for Oscar Piastri, who’d start P7, with Pierre Gasly close behind in P8. Rounding out the session were the two Racing Bulls of Liam Lawson in P9 and Arvid Lindblad in P10. It was an action-packed qualifying that added to an already action-filled weekend, and we still have the race to go.
Race
One, two, three, four, five red lights in Singapore, and they’re off! Leclerc shot off the line and immediately attacked Verstappen for the lead, but Max managed to hang on through Turns 1
and 2, maintaining his lead and Leclerc in P2. The top six maintained their positions at the start but were glued to each other’s gearboxes heading into Turn 5. Further back in the pack, Oliver Bearman was putting on a show while battling his teammate, Esteban Ocon, finally getting the job done and overtaking him. Many say Marina Bay is a track that’s difficult to pass on, but Bearman has shown all weekend that it can be done and proved it further with a beautiful dummy and crossover pass on the Williams of Carlos Sainz.
Back-to-back virtual safety cars after two engine failures from Gabriel Bortoletto and Lance Stroll gave drivers an opportunity to pit for fresh soft tires. Most drivers did pit, but based on the current strategy, Max Verstappen would stay out on his current medium compound tires. As I mentioned last race, Verstappen is a master at conserving tires for long stints during a grand prix, and you’re guaranteed a longer stint on the medium compound compared to the soft. Was it a good choice to stay out?
Leclerc managed to pit for fresh soft compound tires during the virtual safety car, giving him more pace compared to his teammate Lewis Hamilton, allowing Leclerc to easily make the pass for P2 and begin his charge towards Verstappen. Leclerc pushed lap after lap, but somehow, Verstappen was extending his lead, even after being on a set of worn medium compound tires, which technically have less grip but have been known to be a favourite of Verstappen throughout the later stages of the race.
One trend that seems to be happening this year is Ferrari’s strategy, or lack thereof, and the issues regarding communication between Lewis Hamilton and his engineer, Carlo Santi. Hamilton didn’t pit for new tires, putting him at severe risk of being overtaken and losing valuable positions throughout the grand prix. That time finally came. In a battle with Lando Norris, Hamilton lost traction through Turn 1, causing him to run wide. This battle allowed the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli to catch up, quickly passing the McLaren of Norris, gaining on the Ferrari, and making the overtake for P3. Shortly after, Hamilton would lose out to Norris, dropping from the podium to P5 after a missed call to pit, but it wasn’t over yet. Piastri chopped down a 6-second gap between him and Hamilton to make the pass into P5 and dropped Hamilton down to P6.
Leclerc drove his heart out, cutting the over 14-second gap to Verstappen down to seven seconds, but it wasn’t enough. Verstappen had a comfortable and what seemed to be an easy grand prix from start to finish, crossing the line P1, bringing home his first win in Singapore and his 73rd victory of his career. Leclerc, proud of his drive this weekend, brings his Ferrari to P2, and the Mercedes of Antonelli in P3. McLaren had a bit of a comeback and some good points this weekend with Lando Norris P4 and Oscar Piastri P5. Heartbreak for Lewis Hamilton after such a consistent weekend to come up short in P6, followed by Liam Lawson in an impressive P7, Nico Hülkenberg in an equally impressive P8, George Russell put on a great comeback drive to P9, and Isack Hadjar would claw his way from P22 to P10.
The whole weekend was phenomenal from start to finish, and probably the most action-packed Singapore Grand Prix to date. For a track not known for overtakes, there were plenty of positions gained and lost throughout the weekend. After battling severe heat and changing track conditions all weekend, drivers now have a week to recover and rest before the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, on October 25th.
