Max Verstappen completed a perfect weekend at Marina Bay. After Sprint pole, the Sprint win and Grand Prix pole, he held off Charles Leclerc into Turn 1 and led every lap, winning the 62-lap race by 7.335 seconds in 1:42:00.785. It is his 73rd Formula 1 victory, his first in Singapore, and it came in his 250th Grand Prix.

Behind him, the championship took another big step. Kimi Antonelli recovered from a difficult afternoon — a brake sensor change before the start, a fluid leak and repeated track-limits warnings — to finish third. George Russell climbed from 19th on the grid to ninth but scored only two points. Antonelli’s lead is now 102 points with six races to go.

Verstappen holds Turn 1, then pulls away

Leclerc made the better launch from second, but Verstappen moved across to keep the lead into Turn 1 and Leclerc backed out. The Ferrari stayed within a second in the opening laps, close enough to use Overtake Mode, but Verstappen gradually opened the gap. The race was dry throughout: Race Control put the risk of rain at just 5% before the start, and the track stayed between 41 and 44°C.

The first interruption came early. Gabriel Bortoleto stopped his Audi near the pit exit with an apparent gearbox problem on lap 8, and the rear of the car caught fire as marshals moved it. A short Virtual Safety Car followed, with the pit entry briefly closed. Verstappen ran a single stop, switching from softs to mediums at the end of lap 32, and rejoined still in front. He did it with an unreliable radio: Red Bull had to use the pit board to talk to him in the second half of the race.

“It’s taken a while, but I think this race was very good.”

— Max Verstappen, via Formula1.com

Ferrari split the strategies — and Hamilton pays

Ferrari ran its two cars on opposite plans. Hamilton started on mediums and pitted at the end of lap 18 for a used set of softs, planning to run to the finish. Leclerc started on softs, stopped for mediums at the end of lap 24, then took fresh softs under the second Virtual Safety Car on lap 39, triggered when Lance Stroll stopped at Turn 15 with a suspected clutch problem.

That second stop decided the race for second place. On new tyres, Leclerc set the fastest lap of the race, a 1:35.202 on lap 41, while Hamilton, on softs that were already more than 20 laps old, was lapping around two seconds slower. Leclerc caught and passed his team-mate on lap 46. Ferrari had discussed a second stop with Hamilton, telling him another plan might be better, but he stayed out. In the final ten laps he lost three more places: Antonelli and Lando Norris got by around lap 51, and Oscar Piastri passed him on the last lap. Hamilton said afterwards that he took “full responsibility” and apologised to the team. A late investigation into him leaving the track at Turn 1 ended with no further action.

Antonelli turns a difficult day into a podium

Antonelli’s race did not start smoothly. According to PlanetF1, Mercedes replaced a brake sensor before the start after receiving no telemetry on his laps to the grid. During the race he complained about his brakes, then reported something leaking between his feet — the team put it down to heat soak. He was warned several times for track limits and shown the black-and-white flag, but avoided a penalty.

Like Leclerc, he stopped twice: mediums at the end of lap 23, then softs under the lap-39 VSC. The fresh tyres gave him the pace to attack at the end. When Hamilton ran wide defending from Norris, Antonelli passed the McLaren and then took third from Hamilton into Turn 16.

McLaren, Russell and Hadjar

A day after their Sprint collision, Norris and Piastri ran close in the early laps without incident. Norris made a single stop and finished fourth. Piastri lost time with a slow first stop, then had to pit again at the end of lap 41 with a slow puncture, before recovering to fifth with his last-lap pass on Hamilton.

Russell made steady progress from 19th: 15th by lap 5, into the points on lap 31 when Pierre Gasly pitted. He stopped just as the second VSC was ending, which cost him most of the benefit, and rejoined tenth. He passed Gasly for ninth on lap 48 but could not get past Liam Lawson’s Racing Bulls or Nico Hülkenberg’s Audi, who finished seventh and eighth. Isack Hadjar, starting from the pit lane after more power-unit changes, took the final point after passing Gasly late in the race.

Retirements

Only 19 cars were classified. Bortoleto’s Audi stopped on lap 8, Franco Colapinto retired his Alpine after 29 laps with a suspected driveline problem after an earlier trip down an escape road, and Stroll’s Aston Martin stopped with a suspected clutch issue to cause the second VSC. Alexander Albon stopped in the closing laps but was still classified 18th. Before the race, Stroll was also noted for a practice-start infringement, to be investigated after the race.

Next: Austin, and a first match point

Formula 1 now has a weekend off before the United States Grand Prix in Austin on October 25. For the first time this season, Antonelli arrives with the title within reach: a strong result in Texas, and a weak one for Russell, could end the championship with five races still to run. Verstappen, meanwhile, heads there with back-to-back Grand Prix wins after Sepang and Singapore, and up to fourth in the standings.

Sources

Classification, pit stops, tyres, lap times, VSC periods, investigations and weather: OpenF1 session results, pit stops, stints, laps, race control messages and weather for the Grand Prix (session 11388).

Race report, quotes, radio problems, retirements and overtakes: Formula1.com race report, Formula1.com key moments, PlanetF1 race report, Autosport.

Championship standings: Jolpica F1 API, updated with official Sprint and Grand Prix points. Remaining calendar: OpenF1 sessions.