Verstappen dominates from pole to earn first Singapore GP victory; Leclerc a game P2; Antonelli creeps closer to title by leapfrogging Hamilton, McLaren duo for P3

Red Bull’s peerless Max Verstappen dominated the Formula 1 race weekend in Singapore, taking pole for the Sprint Race and winning that on Saturday and then cruising to an imperial victory from pole again in Sunday’s Grand Prix. That made it two on the trot for the Ducthman after earning his first win of the season last week at the Bahrain GP in Malaysia and his first ever Grand Prix victory at the Marina Bay Street Circuit. While he now sits in fourth in the championship after 17 rounds without a realistic chance at the title, Verstappen is nonetheless replicating last season’s form, where he rampaged down the stretch to put the heat on eventual champ Lando Norris. With just six rounds remaining in the 2026 F1 campaign, Verstappen has now authoritatively served notice that he will be a factor for every win left in the table, much to the consternation of all of the drivers ahead of him in the standings not named Andrea Kimi Antonelli.

Antonelli powers past Hamilton 💪

This pass earned Kimi his 14th podium of the season 👏

#F1 #SingaporeGP https://t.co/RmijAG2KUN

— Formula 1 (@F1) October 11, 2026

The only minuscule chance anyone else had to attempt to take the lead from the Flying Dutchman was a quick moment on the opening lap when Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc steamed into the Turn 1 chicane side by side with Verstappen. But just like that, Max out-breaked the Monegasque and immediately started gapping the Prancing Horse. Scuderia stablemate Lewis Hamilton, who ran a contrary strategy to his teammate Leclerc by starting on the Pirelli Mediums, nevertheless pitted first out of the two on only Lap 19 of this 62-lap contest, having figured out that the Softs were not degrading as quickly as originally thought and they were by far the preferred tire to be on in terms of performance. That somewhat backwards strategy call appeared to pay off briefly when Hamilton did leapfrog his teammate following Leclerc’s pit stop on Lap 25 for the opposite Softs-to-Mediums tire call. But whatever track advantages Hamilton gained by the undercut where undone when the seven-time champ did not come in for his second stop under a Virtual Safety Car thrown on Lap 39 due to Lance Stroll’s stricken Aston Martin. It was later revealed that Hamilton either did not get the message to box or chose to ignore it and call strategy from the cockpit, even as Leclerc and the Mercedes of points leader Kimi Antonelli dove in for a cheap tire swap. This left Hamilton vulnerable late in the race and all that track position gained by staying out during the VSC couldn’t save him from being gobbled up by first his teammate Leclerc on Lap 46 and subsequently Antonelli and the the McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. Relegated to a P6 finish by the time the checkers flew when the pace of the Ferrari was clearly good enough for a podium if never the win, Hamilton was left to rue not pitting under yellow, whether by choice or by mistake.

Leclerc did manage to save Ferrari’s blushes somewhat by securing that valuable second place at the end. But Antonelli was able to capitalize on a late scrap between Norris and Hamilton to pass them both and take the last step on the podium, bringing the young Italian into mathematical range of actually clinching the F1 title in Austin in two weeks time, with still five races remaining after that. Norris and Piastri were P4 and P5 respectively, making the most of their Grand Prix efforts after botching the Sprint by getting tangled up with each other on track. Liam Lawson did yeoman’s work for Racing Bulls with a solid P7 result and Audi’s veteran Nico Hulkenberg also overachieved in P8. The second Mercedes of George Russell was P9 and the second Red Bull of Isack Hadjar took the last point in P10, which is more impressive than it seems on paper, since Russell started from nineteenth on the grid and Hadjar started from the pits, both due to engine penalties.

Top 10 finishers of the Singapore GP:

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The teams finally get a small break after the just-completed grueling triple header, as the next race is in a fortnight — the United States Grand Prix from the beautifully designed and almost always highly entertaining Circuit of the Americas. Hope to see you then to find out who will be top dog in Austin and if Kimi can actually clinch!