F1 Singapore Grand Prix Result, Lap by Lap Summary, Opinion and Ratings (2026)

Verstappen and Red Bull take the win in Singapore, and for Verstappen that’s his first win at the circuit. And he made it look far too easy. Talking of easy, our Singapore Grand Prix Result Summary is so easy to digest.

With just a hint of cynicism, bias, opinion and colour. The perfect bite sized review for those who couldn’t be bothered watching live in the parts of the planet where it’s night time, or don’t have enough time regardless of time zone.

Singapore Grand Prix Result Race Summary

Didn’t see the race live? Don’t have time to watch the whole race? Here’s where we capture the laps where stuff happened. We write these live as we go, sort of like a minute by minute for the football, but marginally more interesting.

Setting the scene – SPRINT RACE

Max Verstappen claimed his first win of any type in Singapore in the Sprint Race, which was delayed due to rain, again. He was helped by George Russell binning it into the wall at the end of the first lap. There were a few accidents throughout the sprint race, with a Lance Stroll special on Sergio Perez on the first lap as well. Bortoleto, Bottas and Albon were also victims of their own driving, while Colapinto and Hadjar DNFd through mechanical failure. To top off the Sprint Race incidents, the two McLarens came together on the last lap as Norris tried to overtake down the inside. Stewards said both at fault, it looked 51-49 to Norris, but doesn’t really matter. The duo dropped from 4th and 5th to 8th for Norris and DNF for Piastri. Norris’ post-race interviews perhaps did more damage to himself than the accident, especially since he was so vocal on Colapinto’s effort in Baku.

SPRINT RACE TOP 8

Setting the scene – QUALIFYING

Max Verstappen followed up his first Singapore race win in the Sprint contest with a pole position in his Red Bull. The Ferraris challenged but Verstappen never looked like being beaten. McLarens and Mercedes never looked fast enough to challenge, and McLaren probably still licking their wounds from the sprint race crash. 

TOP TEN QUALIFYING

Setting the scene – RACEDAY

It’s night time and hot, as you’d presume it would be in Singapore, and a long race is ahead, so let’s hope a few try and win it at the first corner for our amusement. It’s not too long a run down there. Isack Hadjar and the two Aston Martins start from the pitlane. George Russell starts from the back of the grid after mechanical penalties.

Lap 1 – Pole sitter Verstappen a bit slow and not as good as Charles Leclerc, but he veers left and essentially forces Leclerc out of the way as they reach turn one in a tough but fair move. In not a good sign for the race ahead, the cars stay as they were on the grid at the sharp end, although Lando Norris looked like he wants a piece of Antonelli’s 4^th place. Piastri behind would be too scared to attack after the bollocking we presume they got after the Sprint Race. Some notable first lap gains is the Hulk aka Nico Hulkenberg up to 8^th and Carlos Sainq up to 10^th. George Russell is up to 17^th from the back of the grid, gaining a couple of places.

ORDER – VER LEC HAM ANT NOR PIA LAW HUL GAS SAI

Lap 2 – As lap two comes to an end, and the cars are settling in for the evening, as least the Haas cars care enough to race each other. The two swap places a few times over the subsequent lap and Bearman eventually nails him for 11^th before the lap is done. Although a lap or so later the stewards want to know about it.

Lap 5 – Charles Leclerc has closed to within half a second of Verstappen, but such is the stupid engine rules these days you’re not sure if it is just because Leclerc has put on his MarioKart mode earlier than Verstappen. The racing appears genuine as Leclerc maintains the gap at half a second, then Verstappen flies out to more than one second, doing nothing to overturn MarioKart influence.

Lap 6 – The top 6 cars have created their own mini race, with a five second gap between Oscar Piastri and Liam Lawson. The biggest gap in that cohort is Lewis Hamilton behind his team mate, but it isn’t that far.

Lap 8 – An Audi (Bortoleto) is slowing on the pit straight, and it took a while to recognise it was the Audi, as their Singapore paint job does make it tougher to recognise them. Usually there’s no recognition for Audi as they are so midfield. Not sure out of necessity or a bit of mischief he doesn’t care about before he’s now retired, but Bortoleto stops the car in almost the middle of the pit lane exit. Interesting to see what the stewards say – Safety Car or na. Forgot Virtual Safety Car as an option.

VIRTUAL SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED

It doesn’t take too long to remove the car, and no one pits, probably because they thought they might not be able to leave.

VIRTUAL SAFETY CAR ENDS

Lap 9 – Charles Leclerc is still on Verstappen’s tail and still trying his heart out. Leclerc is a very good street track driver, but Verstappen is a very good driver everywhere, so you just know this is going to be one of the scenarios where the cars will follow each other for half a race until we get someone getting new tyres.

Lap 12 – A point of interest among the 6 car train is that Lewis Hamilton is the only one on medium tyres. So who knows how that can play out later. For now, even those on the soft tyres are another 10 laps at least from pitstops.

Lap 13 – In an inset of the official F1 coverage, George Russell steams past a Williams to claim 12^th place from the back of the grid, which rates as kind-of bare minimum progress if he’s serious about not getting his F1 license stamped Antonelli’s bitch for 2027. And beyond.

Lap 15 – Verstappen has bored of toying with Charles Leclerc and increases the gap out to 2.5 seconds, with Hamilton over four seconds behind his team mate. By Lap 20 the lead is almost 6 seconds.

Lap 19 – Hamilton is the first front runner to pit so not sure if the early stop is good for his alternative tyre strategy. He rejoins in 7^th place.

Lap 20 – Kimi Antonelli gets a warning about track limits, which might slow him down for a while.

Lap 21 – Lewis Hamilton passes Liam Lawson for 6^th, he’s nearly 20 seconds behind Oscar Piastri in 5^th.

Lap 23 – George Russell passes Esteban Ocon for 11^th as the TV coverage shows the Red Bull of Verstappen with a caption that he is race leader. Probably just in case someone had forgotten, or has fallen asleep at the lack of action.

Lap 24 – Kimi Antonelli pits for new tyres, will he get out in front of Lewis Hamitlon? The answer is an emphatic no. Hamilton is almost three seconds to the good. The Mercedes doesn’t close the gap in the subsequent laps.

Lap 25 – Charles Leclerc pits, and while he stays in front of his Ferrari team mate, it’s only just. Hamilton has the momentum and warm tyres and there’s not much gap in it as they fly around lap 25. They battle without getting too serious for a few laps.

Lap 27 – Hamilton complains on his radio that he lost two seconds of progress on the last lap, and you know that the gold old “I’m faster” message is going to come. More messages follow with more frustration from Hamilton and no help from Ferrari. In fact, Leclerc finds some additional speed.

Lap 31 – Oh no, it’s an Alpine (formerly Renault) stopped on the track, and despite their history at this track of tactical retirements (with the former boss in charge then now involved again) Pierre Gasly has just pit and dropped from the top ten to 13^th, so presume a Safety Car won’t help. Colapinto eventually gets going enough to park his car down an escape road.

Lap 33 – Verstappen and Lando Norris pit with Verstappen keeping the lead and Norris dropping to fifth. Oscar Piastri pits the following lap, and the stop is slower than usual. Of course it is. Piastri rejoins five seconds behind his team mate in 6^th.

Lap 35 – Just realised out of boredom we had forgotten to do the regular update of the order, so here is one at lap 35. For the record Verstappen has a lead of five second to Leclerc, who is now two seconds from Hamilton. George Russell has made decent if not spectacular progress up to 7^th.

ORDER – VER LEC HAM ANT NOR PIA RUS LAW HUL GAS

Lap 37 – After a few threats, Kimi Antonelli gets the official black and white flag warning for track limits. He’s 8.5 seconds in front of Lando Norris behind, so a five second penalty could be covered. Probably the same for ten seconds. Lance Stroll gets one too, which is surprising, not for track limits but that he hasn’t thrown it into a wall yet.

Lap 39 – By the time of finishing typing the previous entry, the TV pans to Lance Stroll up an escape road. This one looks like brake failure, but that can also be a likely excuse. Either way Stroll is out and his car as ever is in conveniently placed and it brings out the Virtual Safety Car.

VIRTUAL SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED

Lap 40 – Front runners take the opportunity to stop – Leclerc and Antonelli the headliners. Norris ends up in the middle of Leclerc and Antonelli now. George Russell pits for the first time under the VSC, but poor old George has really copped the rough end of the pineapple here. He just missed pitting when the VSC was called, then as he pit the VSC was ending. He rejoins 10^th, but better luck and timing could have had him 7^th. Maybe.

VIRTUAL SAFETY CAR ENDS

ORDER – VER HAM LEC NOR ANT PIA LAW HUL GAS RUS

Lap 42 – Kimi Antonelli is blowing up over the radio about having no brakes, which isn’t ideal if true. Oscar Piastri pits for new tyres after having a slow puncture according to the TV coverage. He doesn’t lose a position, so why not have some fresher tyres.

Lap 44 – Appear that Lewis Hamilton is going to the end on the old tyres, which probably won’t make him happy based on radio messages shown on TV. One can imagine the ones that don’t make TV. Meanwhile his team mate Leclerc is catching him quickly and will probably have to let his team mate go past. If he wants to. Given the pace of Leclerc, he’ll have no choice.

Lap 46 – Hamilton plays the team game and let Leclerc through easily. Leclerc is 15 seconds behind the Red Bull of Verstappen in the lead but not forgetting that the Ferrari pit under the VSC so has fresh soft tyres compared to Verstappen’s older medium tyres.

ORDER – VER LEC HAM NOR ANT PIA LAW HUL GAS RUS

Lap 47 – The Gasly-Russell battle continues as George Russell nearly runs into the Alpine trying. A few corners later he does it properly and moves into 9^th. At least he’s slowing the progress of his team mate’s world championship.

Lap 52 – Charles Leclerc is within ten seconds of Verstappen now. There’s ten laps to go, and the Ferrari is going fast enough to at least catch, if not pass. Verstappen is seen weaving his car down the straight to get something out of his tyres. So maybe there’s still life in this race yet.

Lap 53 – Lando Norris has caught up with Hamilton now, hounding him for the final podium spot.

Lap 54 – Lando Norris gets alongside Lewis Hamilton and almost gets by into turn one, but the Ferrari shuts the door, but runs wide, which puts Norris off a little and Kimi Antonelli takes full advantage and passes the McLaren. Hamilton running wide will probably get penalised for taking an advantage, but Antonelli wastes no time and passes Hamilton before the end of the lap. Making up two places in one lap.

Lap 55 – Job done for Lando Norris as he passes Lewis Hamilton for good this time. Problem is Antonelli is already nearly five seconds up the road. Oscar Piastri is shaping up to demote the Ferrari further too.

ORDER – VER LEC ANT NOR HAM PIA LAW HUL RUS GAS

Lap 57 – The gap between Leclerc and Verstappen is nine seconds and has stabilized. So no late race action for the lead it looks like.

Lap 58 – Antonelli still getting track limit warnings from team, so he may attract a penalty post-race if he isn’t careful, which would be welcomed from McLaren and Norris.

Lap 59 – Isack Hadjar gets past Pierre Gasly for the final point of the GP. It’s been a hard slog for him this race. Talking of Red Bull, the leading one is comfortable out in front, leading by 8.5 seconds, so nothing doing for the lead now.

Lap 60 – Piastri closing in on Lewis Hamilton, which probably won’t make either driver smile if it happens. Norris asks his team if he should help Oscar Piastri, which is nice from Lando. He’s told no by the team. Figures. He didn’t need the help anyway, as he passes the Ferrari towards the end of lap 61.

FINAL LAP – Verstappen cruises to win, winning his first ever Singapore GP, from pole no less, and with a Sprint Race under his belt too. Charles Leclerc got within seven seconds but was second class this weekend to Verstappen. Kimi Antonelli gets the final podium after some good moves late, but he also has a bit of luck on his side. But better to be lucky than good. McLaren sort of made up Sprint Race by getting the positions they threw away in the shortened race. Hamilton’s weekend ended in frustration in 6^th place but could rightly wonder what might have been with better strategy.

FINAL ORDER (Across the line): VER LEC ANT NOR PIA HAM LAW HUL RUS HAD

Here we go through the field and highlight the very best (Great) of the race, and the plodders, the over-ambitious, the out of luck, and simply hopeless (Grape).

Essentially a Winners and Losers under a different name.

These points get added to our Driver of the Season scores. 5 points for a great nomination, and -5 for the worst or grapest driver in the pack. Then it is +2 /-2 for honourable or dishonourable mentions.

THE GREAT-EST – M. VERSTAPPEN

Took his first pole position, first win of any kind at Singapore in the Sprint Race, and took a resounding win on the Sunday. A perfect weekend really as challenges sort-of came and went.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

CHARLES LECLERC – A solid weekend of second work. Second in qualifying, second in the race,

KIMI ANTONELLI – Makes his own luck by being a winner, but he’s a winner no less. His third place and poor GP for his team mate means he can win the World Championship at the following race in Austin, USA.

LIAM LAWSON – Another solid weekend of best of the rest.

NICO HULKENBERG – Nice to see him gets some points after a solid drive in the race.

THE GRAPE-EST – GEORGE RUSSELL

Crashed while leading the Sprint Race in the rain. Starting from the back of grid in the main race and made slow-ish progress. The midfield small points finish and his team mate’s podium means his team mate can wrap up the Championship on the follow GP weekend.

DISHONOURABLE MENTIONS

LANCE STROLL – Another GP that was a waste of time. At least this one doesn’t appear to be all his fault. The Sprint Race exit was after a hopeless move on a Cadillac, but mechanical failure ended his Singapore GP. Not that he probably minded given he was towards the back of the field anyway. And he made another Q1 exit in qualifying.

LEWIS HAMILTON – Seemed to battle his team on strategy as much as fellow drivers on track. More of a disappointment of what could have been rather than underperformance.

McLAREN – Crashing into each other in the sprint race is not good. Even though it was only the Sprint Race. The race went a little better, they finished 4^th and 5^th AND didn’t run into each other.

Was it a good race, loads of action, a tense ending, a surprise result or DNF, or just a big, fat, snooze-fest?

We rate the big race itself, so we know which races to go back and watch in the off season or one to simply remember the winner for the post season quiz nights.

PRE RACE ACTION (FP, QUAL, SPRINT, OFF TRACK etc) – 3 / 5

A Sprint Race helps, as the rain could have, but they delayed the start for a long time as per usual. A night race brings some atmosphere, but the track is still a little dull. The McLaren clash in the Sprint Race at least gave folk something to talk about.

ON TRACK ACTION (RACE) – 3 / 10

A few pockets of action, but overall it was dull.

ANY SURPRISES? – 2 / 5

Red Bull winning a few months ago might have been a surprise, but not now.

SEASON IMPORTANCE – 4 / 5

The way the cards have fallen, Kimi Antonelli can win the title at the following race. So yeah, pretty important.

ENDING – 3 / 5

Nice little scrap between Hamilton, Norris and Antonelli, then Piastri and Hamilton. And the lead of the race looked like it could be in danger at one stage, but it evaporated once Verstappen got the sniff of being threatened for the win.

OVERALL RATING – 15  / 30

The night part of the race was spectacular, and there were pockets of interest in the race. So it wasn’t the worst race of the season, but not likely to be one you’ll remember if five years time.