Singapore — Two unstoppable forces combined to dictate the outcome of Singapore’s landmark first F1 Sprint race: Mother Nature, and Max Verstappen.
Verstappen made more history by adding a Sprint victory to his pole from Friday, while heavy rain, which delayed the race start by half an hour, played havoc with many of the other 21 drivers’ hopes.
A brilliant launch saw George Russell’s Mercedes streak into the lead, but rounding Turn 19 onto the finishing straight for the first time the English driver lost control, spun through 180 degrees and into the barrier on the inside.
While Russell was unhurt, he was apologetic: “Miscalculation,” he confessed. “I had more battery deployment than I thought, and it pushed me wide onto the white line. Silly mistake, big consequences,” adding ‘Sorry, sorry, sorry,” to his team.
The crash brought out the Safety Car for five laps, and by the time it came in and the race settled down, almost one-third of the field was gone. Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin and the Cadillac of Sergio Pérez came together first, then Isack Hadjar pulled his Red Bull off the circuit with engine issues.
Next, Franco Colapinto’s Alpine simply shut down on him, and soon after racing resumed, Alex Albon’s Williams, Gabriel Bortoleto’s Audi and the second Cadillac of Valtteri Bottas had also tangled with terminal effect. Nine retirements in all made this, the 30th F1 Sprint race, the one with fewest classified finishers.
Once the race re-started, with the rain a thing of the past, Verstappen simply drove away from the field to win by 2.591 seconds from the Ferraris of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. One incident marked the first lap, another marked the last. As the McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris chased down Leclerc’s Ferrari and its ‘destroyed’ front tyres, the two team-mates clashed and only Norris could limp to the finish in eighth place.
While all this was going on, Kimi Antonelli in the other Mercedes simply kept his nose and his car clean to come home fourth, extending his Championship lead over Russell to 89 points. Hats off also to Liam Lawson, the New Zealander claiming fifth for Racing Bulls, Ollie Bearman, whose Haas pulled off the overtake of the race on Pierre Gasly’s Alpine, and veteran Audi driver Nico Hülkenberg in seventh.
Hamilton claimed fastest lap with a 1:45.457 (168.193 km/h) on the final lap.
Verstappen was quick to acknowledge his good fortune: “We got a bit lucky with what happened with George,” he admitted. “After that, we just wanted to keep it calm and under control.” On that note, the four-time World Champion also sounded a note of caution: “The start was horrendous again, so it’s definitely something we need to improve on.”
Verstappen was also reluctant to celebrate too soon: “I want to win tomorrow,” he said after his 13th Sprint success. “I don’t see this as a win in terms of actually winning a Grand Prix. I’m very pleased to win the Singapore sprint - but I want to win tomorrow.”
He promptly made that task easier by claiming his first Grand Prix pole at Marina Bay, a lap of 1:31.373 at an average speed of 194.118 km/h at the start of the final segment of Qualifying, proving good enough to keep the Ferraris of Leclerc and Hamilton at bay.
“The margins are very close between us throughout Qualifying,” he said. “Very happy to be on pole, because this is of course the one that I wanted. The car has been very strong all weekend; of course you’re always looking for something better, but it was good enough, so very happy with the lap — it’s very special to be on pole here.”
This is also the 50th pole position of Verstappen’s F1 career, as well as his first for a full Grand Prix at Marina Bay. Just as well the Dutchman is on peak form: Red Bull teammate Hadjar ended a fraught day with a new engine for Qualifying but was out after just three laps with suspected gearbox trouble and was not classified.
Leclerc, just 0.054s behind Verstappen, saved his best for last to edge out his Ferrari teammate for the other front-row position. “The good lap was on the right lap at the end,” he said. “I think there was the potential to be on pole, but Max just did a better job.”
“Another difficult Q3,” said a rueful Hamilton, who was quickest through the first two segments of Qualifying but was visibly fighting the car on both of his runs in Q3. “Q1 and Q2 were awesome: we got to Q3, I had trouble with snapping (oversteer) into Turns 1 and 3. I think there’s a real fine line with our car, whether it’s over the edge or under the limit, and finding that sweet spot is very, very difficult.”
Championship favourite Kimi Antonelli contented himself with fourth spot, helped by the fact that nearest rival George Russell will start from near the back of the grid in the second Mercedes. Norris and Piastri, after their tangle in the Sprint race, will find themselves together on row three once Russell’s sixth place is wiped out by his grid penalty.
Alpine’s Pierre Gasly shares row four with his current arch-rival, Liam Lawson of Racing Bulls, while Lawson’s teammate Arvid Lindblad marked his Singapore debut by making it onto the fifth row alongside Audi’s Nico Hülkenberg.
In the day’s other track action, PCCA series leader Marco Giltrap put his pole position to the best possible use by bringing his Team Porsche New Zealand entry home first in the first race with a gap of 1.340 seconds to the returning former champion Alessandro Ghiretti in the Team Carrera Cup Asia by Tempo #911. The man chasing Giltrap for the title, Marcus Amand, had to settle for third at BWT Shanghai Yonda. PR