Verstappen Wins Singapore GP From Pole in 250th F1 Start

Max Verstappen finally has a Singapore Grand Prix win. The Red Bull driver controlled the 62-lap race at the Marina Bay Street Circuit on 11 October from pole position, finishing 7.335 seconds ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Championship leader Kimi Antonelli took third for Mercedes. The victory came in Verstappen’s 250th Grand Prix start and was his second win in a row after the relocated Bahrain Grand Prix at Sepang a week earlier.

It completed a strong weekend for Verstappen, who had also won Saturday’s rain-affected sprint. Sunday was different: the race ran in dry conditions, with F1-Fansite recording an air temperature of 30°C and a track temperature of 42°C. Verstappen’s winning time was 1:42:00.785.

How Verstappen controlled the race

Verstappen started on soft tyres and held off an early challenge from Leclerc into Turn 1. By lap seven he had built a 1.3-second lead. A virtual safety car on lap eight, caused by Gabriel Bortoleto’s Audi stopping near the pit entrance with a suspected gearbox failure and then catching fire, briefly neutralised the race, but racing resumed a lap later.

From there, Verstappen managed his tyres and made a single stop for mediums on lap 33. Leclerc, who started on used softs, pitted on lap 25 and then again under a second virtual safety car, which was called when Lance Stroll stopped his Aston Martin at Turn 15. Ferrari’s two-stop plan gave Leclerc the fastest lap of the race, a 1:35.202 on lap 41, but not enough to threaten the leader. “It has taken a while, but I think this race was very good,” Verstappen said.

• 1. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) – 1:42:00.785
• 2. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) – +7.335s
• 3. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) – +24.573s
• 4. Lando Norris (McLaren) – +40.506s
• 5. Oscar Piastri (McLaren) – +49.644s
• 6. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) – +53.188s
• 7. Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) – +1:21.666
• 8. Nico Hulkenberg (Audi) – +1:23.386
• 9. George Russell (Mercedes) – +1:24.677
• 10. Isack Hadjar (Red Bull) – +1:30.862

Hamilton’s strategy unravels

Lewis Hamilton started third and ran there in the early stages, but Ferrari split its strategies. Hamilton began on mediums and switched to softs on lap 19. When the second virtual safety car came out, Leclerc and Antonelli pitted for fresh tyres while Hamilton stayed out. His soft tyres faded badly in the closing laps.

The consequences arrived quickly. Norris attacked into Turn 1 on lap 54 and Hamilton went off track; the stewards reviewed the incident and took no further action. Antonelli passed Hamilton for third at Turn 16 a lap later, and Oscar Piastri also passed him at Turn 16 on the final lap. Hamilton dropped from a podium position to sixth. Leclerc was candid about Ferrari’s pace too: “We were quite strong at the beginning of the race, then we started degrading,” he said.

Russell’s recovery and Antonelli’s gain

George Russell started 19th after a 40-place power unit grid penalty, a day after crashing out of the lead of the sprint. He worked his way forward, passing Carlos Sainz, Esteban Ocon and then Pierre Gasly on lap 48 for ninth, but could not get past Nico Hulkenberg. Isack Hadjar also recovered from a pit-lane start to claim the final point with a pass on Gasly on lap 59.

Antonelli’s third place was therefore a significant result. “It was a very tough race out there, but really happy with a podium in the end,” he said. He had been investigated for a brake sensor issue before the race and received a black-and-white flag for track limits, but there was no penalty. F1-Fansite reported that his lead over Russell grew from 89 to 102 points.

• Antonelli’s lead over Russell: 102 points after Singapore.
• Retirements: Bortoleto (gearbox), Franco Colapinto (gearbox), Stroll (clutch).
• Piastri lost time with a slow 4.2-second stop and a front-right puncture.
• Next round: the United States Grand Prix in Austin, where Antonelli could clinch the title.

Analysis: Red Bull’s October revival

Two wins in two weekends, plus a sprint victory, mark the strongest spell of Red Bull’s season. The circumstances were very different. Sepang was a chaotic, rain-delayed race with two safety cars, while Singapore was a controlled, dry, tyre-management drive from the front. That variety suggests the improvement is real rather than a product of one set of conditions.

It is too late to change the destination of the championship, with Antonelli more than 100 points clear, but it changes the shape of the final races. Verstappen is now a regular threat for wins, and Mercedes cannot simply manage its advantage. For Ferrari, the weekend was a reminder that strategy calls can cost as much as pace; Leclerc’s second place showed the car’s potential, while Hamilton’s drop to sixth showed the downside of gambling on tyre life.

McLaren had a mixed evening. Norris and Piastri finished fourth and fifth, and Norris set the highest top speed of the race at 316km/h, but neither could challenge for the podium. Piastri’s race was compromised by the slow pit stop and the puncture, which forced an extra stop on lap 42, and his final-lap pass on Hamilton salvaged some points for the team.

Further back, Liam Lawson took a strong seventh for Racing Bulls and Nico Hulkenberg resisted Russell to the flag for eighth, giving Audi valuable points on a weekend when Bortoleto’s car caught fire. Alpine had a difficult night, with Colapinto retiring with a gearbox problem and Gasly losing the final point to Hadjar in the closing laps.

The milestone element should not be overlooked either. Reaching 250 Grand Prix starts puts Verstappen among a small group of drivers with that level of experience, and winning on the day he reached it, at one of the few circuits where he had never won, made it a memorable landmark.

Singapore and Malaysia share the same time zone, so local fans could follow back-to-back weekends of racing in the region on home time. It made for a memorable stretch: a Bahrain Grand Prix held at Sepang and then a Singapore win that Verstappen had been chasing for more than a decade.