Max Verstappen finally takes his first Singapore Grand Prix win

Keeping the lead through the stops

Verstappen’s first task was to keep Leclerc behind him at the opening corner. The Ferrari made a strong start, but Verstappen protected the inside and emerged ahead. Leclerc stayed close early in the race before the Red Bull began to build a gap. [2]

That advantage gave Verstappen room to extend his opening stint. He stopped on lap 33, changed from soft to medium tyres and returned to the track still leading. The one-stop approach held up through the race’s interruptions, and he retained first place through to the finish. [2] [3]

Ferrari’s strategies split

Behind the leader, Ferrari’s two drivers faced different tyre calculations. Lewis Hamilton had switched to soft tyres on lap 19. Leclerc later made a second stop during a Virtual Safety Car period, giving him fresher rubber for the closing stages while Hamilton stayed out. [2]

Leclerc passed Hamilton on lap 46 and went on to secure second. Hamilton’s pace faded as the race continued, allowing Antonelli to take the final podium place. The McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri also passed him, leaving Hamilton sixth in the final order. [2] [3]

The classification put Antonelli 24.573 seconds behind Verstappen. Norris and Piastri were fourth and fifth, while Liam Lawson, Nico Hülkenberg, George Russell and Isack Hadjar completed the points-scoring top 10. [1]

A win with problems inside the cockpit

The result looked controlled, but Verstappen described some less comfortable moments afterward. In the FIA post-race press conference, he said the start had not felt right and that early energy-deployment problems had briefly given Leclerc an opportunity. Once those issues cleared, he said, the car allowed him to manage its tyres effectively. [4]

He also reported persistent radio difficulties. Formula 1’s race report noted that Red Bull used its pit board to communicate, adding an old-fashioned complication to an otherwise successful afternoon. [3] [4]

Asked about finally winning at Marina Bay, Verstappen described a sense of relief. He credited recent improvements that had made the car more predictable and easier to drive. The Singapore result gave those improvements a concrete reward: a Grand Prix victory at a circuit where he had never previously stood on the top step. [4]