A clean sweep of the weekend for Max Verstappen, but some catastrophic blunders from some big names behind him (and immediately in front of him in the sprint).
Here’s Edd Straw’s judgement on how all 22 drivers ranked from best to worst.
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Started: 1st Finished: 1st
The only blemish in an otherwise exemplary sprint component of the weekend was losing the lead at the start when the car "just doesn't accelerate off the line", a recurring Red Bull problem, allowing George Russell to power ahead in the second phase of the launch.
Once Russell's crash gave him the lead back, Verstappen drove well to keep Lewis Hamilton at arm's length.
Given the Ferraris were also quick enough to have taken pole position, it was Verstappen's execution in Q3 that ensured he took pole position.
Didn't put a foot wrong in the race, save for his one off-track moment at Turn 19, even with the complication of radio problems meaning he couldn't be heard by the team.
Verdict: At one with the car and repeatedly nailed it when he had to.

Started: 8th Finished: 7th
Couldn't have got better results in the sprint component of the weekend, leading the way in both qualifying and the race to bag four points.
Grand prix qualifying was the main negative of his weekend, and even then only a small one, as he would have beaten Pierre Gasly to seventh had he nailed Q3.
Jumped Gasly at the start and had a straightforward race to best-of-the-rest after that.
Verdict: Save for dropping one position in main qualifying, put the car in the best-possible place throughout.

Started: 4th Finished: 3rd
Running the latest-specification Mercedes aerodynamic package, Antonelli found it difficult to drive and hard to get into a good window in sprint qualifying, but his clean race of "damage limitation" yielded fourth thanks to the McLaren wipeout.
Comparison with team-mate Russell's pace is difficult to make, but while he admitted to leaving a little time on the table in qualifying, he probably put the car broadly where it should have been.
Drove a good grand prix, albeit flirting with a track limits penalty that he almost triggered before one offence was struck off because of brake problems - executing the final stint after his VSC stop well to clear Lando Norris and Hamilton, with their battle helping his progress.
Verdict: Did a good job on a tricky weekend trying to understand the upgraded car.

Started: 10th Finished: 8th
Won the intra-team Audi battle over Gabriel Bortoleto by half a tenth in sprint qualifying, but despite losing a place to Ollie Bearman early in the sprint, he picked up points, passing Gasly along the way.
Had a clean GP qualifying but not a perfect one, although getting the Audi into Q3 might have been a stretch.
Jumped Arvid Lindblad at the start, then passed Gasly out of Turn 2 to run eighth, which is where he stayed. Drove superbly to hold off the recovering Russell, who had a faster car and a tyre-life advantage, for the final 13 laps.
Verdict: Had a decent sprint element, but excelled in the grand prix itself to elevate his ranking.

Started: 2nd Finished: 2nd
Sprint qualifying went well, but the sprint race was a struggle as Leclerc’s aggressive front-limited set-up led to him struggling badly with the front tyres. Despite that, he kept the chasing McLarens behind and held onto third.
Had the car to take GP pole position, and had Turns 13 and 16/17 gone better, he would have beaten Verstappen.
Made a better start than Verstappen but couldn't breach his defence into Turn 1. After that, finishing second was the best that was realistically possible.
Verdict: Didn’t maximise qualifying but effective in the races.

Started: 11th Finished: 12th
Was very at home with an experimental set-up, and although he could have pipped Hulkenberg in sprint qualifying, he still did a good job. He battled past Hulkenberg on the opening lap to run 10th, then passed Gasly, which combined with Russell's crash and the McLaren collision added up to sixth place.
Produced "a mega lap" in Q1, but perhaps left a tiny amount of time on the table in Q2.Losing two places at the start dented his points hopes even though he quickly recovered. But by then he was behind Gasly and inevitably got shuffled out of the points by Russell and Hadjar.
Verdict: Had a strong weekend in probably the eighth-fastest car.

Started: 13th Finished: 14th
Had a nightmare in sprint qualifying in the uncompetitive Williams, and while last to 12th looks good on paper in the sprint, it was achieved by overtaking precisely nobody.
Considering he was impeded by Hulkenberg in Q2 (which the stewards acknowledged happened but didn't issue a penalty for given the circumstances of a timing data inaccuracy), he wasn't at fault for what he characterised as not getting the maximum out of the car in main qualifying.
Made a superb start to force his way to 10th, but battery troubles hastened losing positions. Realistically, he finished about as high as the Williams could have done.
Verdict: A good weekend in the ninth-best car.

Started: 20th (pits) Finished: 16th
Battled understeer and poor straightline speed well to put the Aston Martin firmly in the lower-midfield throughout the sprint component, although he lost a place to Esteban Ocon thanks to a poor exit from Turn 5 on the opening lap. The subsequent gains were due to others' problems.
Felt he'd extracted the maximum from Q1 on Saturday, but the pace was in the car to have reached Q2 given time lost in the final sector.
Was always up against it on Sunday after starting from the pits following a power unit change. But showed relatively decent pace in a race that was never likely to go anywhere.
Verdict: Had a decent weekend, but not one of his best.

Started: 6th Finished: 5th
Found pace once on softs in SQ3 and outqualified Norris, keeping him behind almost to the end of the sprint race before being spun after contact when his team-mate launched his Turn 5 attack on the final lap.
With both McLaren drivers finding the car difficult and unpredictable, Piastri ended up 0.148s behind Norris in main qualifying, which was enough to slip behind Russell.
His race pace was similar to Norris's, perhaps very marginally slower despite good pace on mediums, but most of the gap to his team-mate was down to circumstances and the slow puncture that forced a pitstop shortly after the lap-39 VSC.
Verdict: Continues to chip away at getting on top of the McLaren effectively.

Started: 3rd Finished: 6th
Flew on the mediums in sprint qualifying, but struggled for rear grip after switching to softs.
An edge of over a tenth over team-mate Leclerc at Turn 10 became a three-tenths deficit by the end of the lap thanks to the rear tyres overheating. His great start and Russell's crash allowed him to recover to second in the sprint.
Had the pace to have taken pole position, and had the fastest theoretical lap of all, but by his own admission "none of the laps in Q3 were any good" and he ended up third.
His race was defined by not pitting under the VSC, and while every detail of that hasn’t been fully explained, the fact he was apologetic suggests that Hamilton took responsibility for the way the strategy played out and turned third into sixth.
Verdict: Fast, but didn't nail either Q3 and took responsibility for the strategic losses.

Started: 7th Finished: 11th
Marginally had the edge on Alpine team-mate Colapinto in sprint qualifying, with just under a tenth between them in SQ2, but missed out on a points shot in the race after fading, complaining he lacked power on the straight.
Couldn’t have started higher after putting Alpine at the head of the midfield, although he did leave a little time on the table in Q3.
After slipping to ninth at the start, where he reported having no power, he struggled with the tyres and inevitably lost two more places to the recovering Russell and Isack Hadjar.
Verdict: Good single-lap pace, but struggled more in race conditions.

Started: 5th Finished: 4th
Wasn't at his best in sprint qualifying, lapping 0.133s slower than team-mate Piastri despite McLaren seemingly having fixed the straightline speed problem he carried in Azerbaijan and Malaysia.
Chased Piastri all race, but his move at Turn 5 on the final lap, which resulted in contact, was foolish given it was his team-mate - and costly - even though he can legitimately argue that the passing attempt in itself was on.
Probably achieved the maximum that was possible given how difficult the McLaren was to drive in the main event. However, although it probably didn't change the final result, he admitted that "I could have put up a better fight with Kimi" given Antonelli got ahead when Norris unsuccessfully tried to pass Hamilton into Turn 1.
Verdict: Put the McLaren where it should have been, but sprint component of the weekend is a negative.

Started: 12th Finished: 13th
The combination of a different set-up approach and a different car spec thanks to parts changes since FP1 meant Ocon struggled a little in qualifying, but a mistake at Turn 16 on his final lap cost him significantly. Should have finished ninth in the sprint, but was ambushed by Gasly at Turn 13 on the last lap.
Complained that he was struggling with the car in terms of grip and parts in grand prix qualifying, but at least put his Haas behind team-mate Bearman.
Briefly ran ahead of Bearman before inevitably being passed as "we don't have the grip there is on Ollie's car" thanks to the car differences.
Verdict: Performed well factoring in the disadvantage of his car, feeling he had got the most out of it.

Started: 22nd (pits) Finished: 10th
Lacked Red Bull team-mate Verstappen's pace in sprint qualifying despite trying to force the pace with a later-braking style, compounding that by having his one SQ3 lap deleted. There was no chance to make up for that thanks to a lack of power at the start, followed by his retirement under the safety car with a PU problem.
With qualifying proper ruined by a gearbox problem to complete the Saturday "disaster" that wasn't his fault, Hadjar couldn't show his true single-lap pace.
Showed dogged determination in recovering from starting last (and from the pitlane) to take 10th, especially with power unit issues early on costing him the chance to make gains on lap one.
Verdict: Did well to salvage a point, but even factoring in the problems, there was never any hint of Verstappen-like pace.

Started: 17th Finished: 17th
The sprint part of the weekend was messy, with a nose-crunching off early in SQ1 - although he recovered to outqualify Cadillac team-mate Valtteri Bottas by 0.108s - then a collision with Lance Stroll in the race that Perez was held responsible for.
Probably got the most out of the car in main qualifying, although the 0.861s advantage over Bottas was exaggerated by his team-mate's problems.
Drove a good race, although the attacking early pitstop didn't give him track position and hastened his slide into blue-flag hell.
Verdict: Pace was strong in the slowest car in the field.

Started: 19th Finished: 9th
Although he did a good job of taking second in sprint qualifying and jumping into the lead, running the Mercedes with the pre-Malaysia aero package, he threw it all away by crashing through what he called "a very silly mistake" exiting the final corner at the end of the first lap.
Underachieved slightly in main qualifying, but given his penalty, there was nothing really at stake there.
Drove a good recovery race to salvage points, but finished two places off the Mercedes best-case scenario - partly a consequence of taking a little longer than he'd have liked to pass Gasly, then being unable to overtake Hulkenberg. However, at a track where overtaking is difficult, that is understandable.
Verdict: Spec difference makes comparison with Antonelli difficult, but the sprint-race crash counts heavily against him.

Started: 9th Finished: 15th
The red flag in SQ1 confounded his aim to ease himself into qualifying on his first outing in Singapore, but although his underlying pace was good enough to advance, a mistake on the brakes at Turn 13, not helped by the lack of overtake mode, led to his elimination.
Reaching Q3 despite having so few genuine push-laps prior to qualifying represented a decent turnaround as he built up confidence, but he was still a little behind the curve, which explains the big gap to Lawson in Q3.
Picking up wheelspin at the start led to him having to back out at Turn 1 after getting squeezed, which dropped him to 13th. That defined his race, with the recoveries of Russell and Hadjar relegating him to 15th at the finish.
Verdict: A disappointing first Singapore GP weekend, but with mitigating factors.

Started: 14th Finished: DNF
Initially on the wrong side of a tight pace battle with Audi team-mate Hulkenberg in qualifying, it seemed to be marginally swinging Bortoleto’s way before a moment exiting Turn 18 cost him. After dropping to 17th, his race was ended under the safety car by Albon rear-ending him.
Didn't get the best out of GP qualifying and was eliminated in an untidy Q2 that left him an unrepresentative nine-tenths behind Hulkenberg.
Despite making a good start by Audi standards, he was jumped by Colapinto and Alex Albon before a gearbox failure eliminated him early.
Verdict: Bad luck ruined both races, but he fell well short of his team-mate's qualifying execution.

Started: 15th Finished: DNF
Was on a similar pace level to Alpine team-mate Gasly in sprint qualifying, with his SQ2 exit entirely down to time lost to the brakes and tyres not being in the right temperature for Turn 1. He briefly ran 12th in the sprint race before stopping with an energy store problem.
Clipped the wall in Q2 and again failed to deliver on his much-closer single-lap pace compared to Gasly.
His race was mostly spent behind Sainz before his retirement.
Verdict: Underlying pace was better than it looked, but qualifying wasn’t maximised.

Started: 16th Finished: 18th
Was the lead Williams in sprint qualifying despite a tricky session with the car pulling under braking, but his Saturday race was shortlived as he rear-ended Bortoleto under the safety car. Stewards justifiably blamed the concertina effect, but it was probably avoidable on Albon's part.
Wasn't comfortable with the repaired car in qualifying, ending up half-a-second slower than team-mate Sainz.
Struggled with brake overheating throughout the race, which made attacking cars ahead impossible even before his late retirement.
Verdict: Another largely futile weekend.

Started: 18th Finished: 19th
Had a frustrating sprint, with yellow flags then traffic in qualifying meaning he didn't get an optimum lap in then getting caught out by the safety-car concertina-effect collision when he hit the back of Albon.
Deployment problems in main qualifying then held him back.
Had to manage the brakes from early on and appeared to have other car problems, meaning his race pace was terrible.
Verdict: A weekend where circumstances and car problems make it difficult to fairly rank him.

Started: 21st (pits) Finished: DNF
Brake problems in FP1 meant he was light on confidence in the car, meaning he was well off Alonso in sprint qualifying before his early elimination from the sprint by Perez.
A combination of a messy Q1 and Bottas costing him time meant he didn't maximise qualifying.
Clutch problem put him out of the race, although where a fair comparison could be made, he was off Alonso's pace.
Verdict: Another nothing weekend.
