Max Verstappen was untouchable in the Singapore Grand Prix, while Ferrari tried a different strategy with Charles Leclerc but ultimately lacked the race pace needed to seriously challenge Red Bull. The Dutchman led all 62 laps, Charles Leclerc finished 7.3 seconds behind, and Kimi Antonelli passed Lewis Hamilton late in the race to claim the final podium position.
The Singapore Grand Prix produced one clear master and three very different strategic approaches. Max Verstappen completed the race with one stop, while Charles Leclerc and Kimi Antonelli stopped twice after taking advantage of the Virtual Safety Car. Lewis Hamilton also made only one stop, but kept the same set of Soft tyres for 44 laps. For Max Verstappen, it was the 73rd victory of his Formula 1 career, his first at Marina Bay and one achieved on his 250th Grand Prix appearance. The broader pace differences between the leading drivers can be explored through the F1 Race Pace & Lap Time Comparison.
Singapore GP conditions created an unusual race
The race began on a circuit with virtually no useful rubbered-in reference from the previous day. Saturday’s Sprint had been held in wet conditions and the rain had washed away much of the track evolution, to the point that race control was still reporting a slippery surface in Sector 3 before the Grand Prix start.
Sunday evening was dry, however, with an air temperature of 30°C, humidity at 72% and the track between 40°C and 45°C. Grip improved progressively throughout the race, and all six of the fastest laps were recorded after lap 40, beginning with Charles Leclerc’s 1:35.202.
The start changed very little. Max Verstappen covered Charles Leclerc into Turn 1, and at the end of the opening lap the top six remained in their starting order. Charles Leclerc was 0.6 seconds behind, Lewis Hamilton 1.4 seconds back, Kimi Antonelli at 1.8, Lando Norris at 2.5 and Oscar Piastri at 3.4 seconds.
Further down the order there were some changes, with Carlos Sainz gaining three positions and Arvid Lindblad losing four.
At the chequered flag, Charles Leclerc was 7.3 seconds behind Max Verstappen, while Kimi Antonelli finished 24.6 seconds back. Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri and Lewis Hamilton followed at 40.5, 49.6 and 53.2 seconds respectively. Only ten cars finished on the lead lap, while Gabriel Bortoleto, Franco Colapinto and Lance Stroll retired.
Soft and Medium work as the Hard tyre stays unused
Two major questions remained before the race: how long the Medium compound would last and how quickly the Hard tyre would begin to perform. New Medium tyres lasted from 30 laps for Max Verstappen and Lando Norris to 39 laps for George Russell, meaning nobody ever needed to use the Hard, the hardest compound brought by Pirelli. The entire race was completed using only Soft and Medium tyres.
Most one-stop strategies featured pit stops between laps 26 and 35. New Soft tyres lasted as long as 32 or 33 laps for Max Verstappen, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. Comparing the first five clean laps with the final five clean laps of those stints shows almost no difference in performance, because the reduction in fuel load and the improving circuit largely compensated for tyre degradation.
The Soft offered a clear advantage only initially. Between laps 41 and 50, Charles Leclerc averaged a median 1:35.66 on an already-used Soft, compared with Max Verstappen’s 1:36.30 on the Medium, making the Ferrari driver 0.64 seconds faster. Over the final 12 laps, however, the gap fell to only one tenth.
The same trend appeared elsewhere. In the same Red Bull, Max Verstappen recorded a 1:36.61 median on the Medium while Isack Hadjar managed 1:36.70 on a used Soft. Nico Hülkenberg, on a new Soft, and Liam Lawson, on a new Medium, were separated by just one hundredth, 1:37.59 against 1:37.58.
The Virtual Safety Car transforms the strategy battle
The timing of the pit stops mattered more than the compound itself, and this is where the Virtual Safety Car changed the race. Under green-flag conditions, a pit stop cost approximately 24–25 seconds. Under the VSC, Charles Leclerc lost only 12.3 seconds and Kimi Antonelli 13.6.
Charles Leclerc, Kimi Antonelli, George Russell and Sergio Pérez all took advantage. Max Verstappen and Lando Norris could not because they had stopped six laps earlier, while Oscar Piastri entered the pits two laps after the VSC ended because of a slow puncture and lost 23.4 seconds.
Earlier pit stops had produced only limited gains before then. Charles Leclerc and Kimi Antonelli stopped eight and nine laps earlier than Max Verstappen respectively, but the Ferrari driver reduced his deficit only from 8.4 to 4.7 seconds, nowhere near enough to make an overtake possible.
Lewis Hamilton stopped on lap 19 and initially gained track position over Kimi Antonelli, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, but the price came later. McLaren was the biggest strategic loser: second and third on lap 31, the two cars were fifth and sixth by lap 34 after being jumped by three rivals who had stopped earlier.
Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes run four different races
Red Bull had the simplest race. Max Verstappen built his victory during the opening 22 laps, recording a median 1:37.39 compared with Charles Leclerc’s 1:37.91 and Lando Norris’s 1:38.04. The gap to the Ferrari therefore grew from 0.6 seconds to 8.4 seconds.
From there, Max Verstappen required only one pit stop, with his Medium tyres lasting another 30 laps. After the VSC, Charles Leclerc reduced what had become an 18.0-second deficit to 7.3 seconds, but the race leader was never genuinely forced to defend his position.
Charles Leclerc ran the race Ferrari needed in order to keep chasing. Over the radio, he referred to a Plan C that was opposite to Red Bull’s strategy, involving two stops and eventually a second stop under the VSC. On Soft tyres, he set the fastest lap of the race in 1:35.202 and recovered 10.7 seconds on Max Verstappen over 22 laps.
When tyre compound and race phase were comparable, Charles Leclerc was faster than Kimi Antonelli in all three sectors, suggesting that Ferrari had enough cornering performance to compete strongly. More analysis of the SF-26’s strengths and weaknesses is available in the Ferrari technical analysis section.
The limitation remained straight-line speed. Ferrari recorded a median 285 km/h at the speed trap, compared with 289 km/h for Red Bull and McLaren and 288 km/h for Kimi Antonelli. Those differences can also be compared through the F1 Top Speed Comparison.
Lewis Hamilton’s alternative strategy works until the VSC
Lewis Hamilton effectively ran a different race. Starting third on the Medium, he saw his pace deteriorate by 1.6 seconds between laps 10 and 17 and stopped on lap 19 for a used set of Soft tyres.
For a long time, the strategy worked. Between laps 24 and 31, Lewis Hamilton was running at a median 1:37.22, compared with Max Verstappen’s 1:37.62. The situation changed when the VSC appeared. According to Sky Sports, Ferrari asked him to pit behind Charles Leclerc, but the British driver stayed out and moved into second position.
A stop costing around 12 or 13 seconds would have given Lewis Hamilton tyres capable of lapping approximately two seconds faster, but instead the consequences arrived all at once. Charles Leclerc passed him on lap 46, Kimi Antonelli on lap 54, Lando Norris on lap 55 and Oscar Piastri on lap 61.
Lewis Hamilton eventually finished sixth, 53.2 seconds behind the winner. His own post-race assessment was severe: “Sorry guys, I let you down today with that strategy. It was my choice and it cost us valuable points.” The latest developments involving the seven-time world champion can be followed in the Lewis Hamilton Ferrari news section.
McLaren loses ground during the opening stint
McLaren’s race was compromised primarily in the first stint. From laps 3 to 17, Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Antonelli, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri ran in a train separated by approximately one second each. Between laps 10 and 23, the two McLaren cars were respectively 0.65 and 0.84 seconds per lap slower than Max Verstappen.
When they eventually stopped on laps 33 and 34, they fell from second and third to fifth and sixth. Both recovered one position only because of Lewis Hamilton’s late tyre decline.
Lando Norris remained within 0.25 seconds of Max Verstappen for ten laps before becoming trapped behind Lewis Hamilton, and Kimi Antonelli passed him on lap 54. Oscar Piastri, after a slow pit stop followed by a puncture, became the second-fastest driver of the race after lap 41 on fresh Soft tyres, approximately one second faster than Lando Norris.
The pattern was clear: McLaren was particularly strong on fresh tyres, while its first-stint pace was the weakness.
Mercedes runs two different configurations in Singapore
Mercedes brought two noticeably different cars, and the telemetry confirmed the contrast. George Russell recorded a median 295 km/h at the speed trap compared with Kimi Antonelli’s 288 km/h. Approaching Turns 1, 7 and 16, George Russell was respectively 5, 4 and 4 km/h faster.
Kimi Antonelli, however, carried approximately two kilometres per hour more speed through most of the slow corners. The data points towards a lower-downforce configuration for George Russell and a higher-downforce set-up for Kimi Antonelli. That would also be consistent with the objective of the new package, which was intended to add aerodynamic load at the cost of a small natural loss in efficiency.
The two configurations produced opposite outcomes. After his first stint, Kimi Antonelli spent much of the race in clean air and produced the fastest final stint of anyone, with a 1:36.41 median compared with Charles Leclerc’s 1:36.56 and Max Verstappen’s 1:36.66.
George Russell started 19th and finished ninth after completing seven overtakes on track. In traffic, however, he could not establish a consistent rhythm and recorded a 1:37.51 median. His top-speed advantage was therefore more useful for overtaking than for sustained race pace.
Where Max Verstappen won and Lewis Hamilton lost the podium
The victory was essentially built during the first 22 laps. Max Verstappen gained an average of 0.35 seconds per lap over Charles Leclerc, whose pace on an already-used Soft dropped from around 1:37.5 to 1:38.6 between laps 10 and 23.
Behind them, Lewis Hamilton headed a train containing Kimi Antonelli, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, with none of them able to complete an overtake.
Ferrari attempted to respond with an early stop for Charles Leclerc. The Monegasque pitted eight laps before Max Verstappen and reduced his deficit from 8.4 to 4.7 seconds, but when the Red Bull driver stopped he rejoined ahead on fresh Mediums. Between laps 33 and 38, he rebuilt the advantage slightly to 5.7 seconds.
Then the Virtual Safety Car changed the calculations again. With Charles Leclerc stopping at roughly half the normal time loss and Lewis Hamilton staying out, the gap between the two Ferrari drivers looked very different on lap 40. Charles Leclerc was 18.0 seconds behind Max Verstappen, while Lewis Hamilton sat second, ten seconds ahead of his team-mate.
Charles Leclerc gained approximately two seconds per lap on Lewis Hamilton and passed him on lap 46, although the battle itself cost almost two seconds. He then continued to push, gaining 0.63 seconds per lap on Max Verstappen until lap 50 and 0.27 seconds per lap afterwards.
He finished 7.3 seconds behind. At that rate, he would have needed approximately another dozen laps to close the remaining gap. More coverage of his Ferrari season is available in the Charles Leclerc news section.
Kimi Antonelli takes the podium from Lewis Hamilton
The final podium position changed hands on lap 54. Lewis Hamilton, Lando Norris and Kimi Antonelli were separated by less than one second, but the Mercedes driver had an 18-lap-old Soft compared with the McLaren’s 22-lap-old Medium and Lewis Hamilton’s 39-lap-old Soft.
Kimi Antonelli passed both rivals on the same lap after Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris ran long at Turns 1 and 2. The decisive move for third came at Turn 16. Lando Norris then repassed Lewis Hamilton on lap 55, before Oscar Piastri also overtook the Ferrari on lap 61.
Our calculations counted 32 on-track overtakes during the Singapore Grand Prix. Among the leading seven cars there were only six, and four of those were moves on Lewis Hamilton. That illustrates just how heavily the race was decided by strategy rather than wheel-to-wheel battles.
Max Verstappen summarised the key to Red Bull’s victory by saying: “We had the pace when we needed it, both on the Soft and the Medium.”
Isack Hadjar and Nico Hülkenberg impress in the midfield
Isack Hadjar produced perhaps the biggest positive surprise of the midfield. Starting from the pit lane, he finished tenth after passing ten cars on track. Once finally running in clean air during the last stint, he produced a 1:36.70 median, the fifth-fastest pace after lap 40 and only one tenth slower than Max Verstappen.
During his opening stint, Isack Hadjar spent 18 of 28 laps less than 1.5 seconds behind the car ahead.
Nico Hülkenberg and Liam Lawson also extracted close to the maximum available. Nico Hülkenberg climbed from tenth to eighth using Medium tyres followed by a new Soft, while Liam Lawson progressed from eighth to seventh with a used Soft followed by a new Medium.
Over the closing laps their pace was almost identical, at 1:37.59 and 1:37.58 respectively. They finished 83.4 and 81.7 seconds behind Max Verstappen.
Pierre Gasly endured a more disappointing race, finishing 11th after starting seventh. He lost two places at the start and another two to George Russell and Isack Hadjar, with race pace approximately three tenths slower than Liam Lawson and Nico Hülkenberg.
Arvid Lindblad struggled even more, dropping from ninth to 15th after losing four positions immediately at the start. His final-stint median was 1:38.94, which was 1.36 seconds slower than team-mate Liam Lawson.
The remaining teams played largely supporting roles. Haas, Williams, Aston Martin and Cadillac finished one or more laps behind, with Valtteri Bottas three laps down and recording the slowest pit stop of the race at 29.390 seconds.
Gabriel Bortoleto retired with a suspected gearbox problem, Franco Colapinto with a suspected transmission failure and Lance Stroll with a suspected clutch issue.
Kimi Antonelli’s first championship checkpoint comes at Austin
With third place in Singapore, Kimi Antonelli gained 13 points on George Russell and extended his advantage from 89 to 102 points, with six races remaining and no Sprint events left.
At Austin from October 23–25, Kimi Antonelli could already mathematically settle the contest if he scores 23 points more than his team-mate. One example would be winning the race with George Russell finishing ninth or lower. The 2026 Singapore Grand Prix weekend page provides the wider context for the Marina Bay event that created this championship situation.
It is a difficult scenario, but not an impossible one, and the Singapore race offers some clues about how the battle could develop. Kimi Antonelli produced the fastest final stint of the field and had a Mercedes that worked particularly well in clean air, while George Russell’s configuration appeared better suited to overtaking than sustained running.
Behind them, Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc are 111, 119 and 125 points back respectively. The more likely outcome is therefore that Austin increases Kimi Antonelli’s margin rather than ending the contest completely.
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