Verstappen Wins First Singapore Grand Prix

Max Verstappen of Red Bull won the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday, 11 October, his first victory in the race, finishing 7.335 seconds ahead of Charles Leclerc of Ferrari after starting from pole position, the first place on the starting grid (FIA document 87; BBC Sport). Kimi Antonelli of Mercedes, who leads the drivers' championship, was third (FIA document 87). The result is provisional until the FIA, the sport's governing body, publishes the final classification (FIA document 87).

The 62-lap race on the Marina Bay street circuit started at 8 p.m. Singapore time, 8 a.m. ET, and took Verstappen 1 hour 42 minutes 0.785 seconds (FIA timetable; FIA document 87; Formula1.com). It was his second Grand Prix win in a row, after the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia a week earlier, and it completed a weekend in which he also took pole and won Saturday's sprint, a shorter, separate race (BBC Sport; RaceFans).

Leclerc drew alongside at the start, but Verstappen kept the lead into the first corner and controlled the race from there (BBC Sport; RaceFans).

Ferrari split its tyre plans. Leclerc started on soft tyres, the fastest but least durable of the types available, and Lewis Hamilton, who started third, on mediums, which are slower but last longer (RaceFans; BBC Sport). Hamilton lacked pace and made his one pit stop first, on lap 18, switching to softs, then tried to make that set last 44 laps to the finish (BBC Sport; RaceFans). Leclerc stopped on lap 24 and again during a virtual safety car, a period when every driver must slow to a set speed while marshals deal with a stopped car; Hamilton stayed out (BBC Sport; RaceFans). On fresh tyres Leclerc set the race's fastest lap, 1 minute 35.202 seconds, on lap 41, and soon passed Hamilton for second (FIA document 87; BBC Sport). The BBC called Ferrari's strategy for Hamilton "baffling" (BBC Sport).

Hamilton's worn tyres faded in the closing laps. Lando Norris of McLaren tried to pass him at the first corner; both cars ran off the track, and Antonelli went past them both (FIA document 86; BBC Sport). The stewards, the officials who rule on incidents and penalties, took no further action against Hamilton, saying Norris's move was not a legitimate one because he had also left the track, and that both had then lost a place to Antonelli (FIA document 86). Norris then got by, and his team-mate Oscar Piastri passed Hamilton in the last two laps, leaving him sixth, 53.188 seconds behind (RaceFans; BBC Sport; FIA document 87). RaceFans reported that Antonelli was briefly troubled by overheating brakes and ran beyond the track limits, the white lines that mark the edge of the circuit, several times, but he finished third (RaceFans; FIA document 87).

George Russell of Mercedes, second in the championship, set the sixth-fastest time in qualifying but started 19th, the last car on the grid, because of a 60-place grid penalty for using more engine parts than the rules allow; a grid penalty moves a driver back from where he qualified (FIA document 84). Three drivers, Fernando Alonso, Lance Stroll and Isack Hadjar, started from the pit lane, the lane beside the main straight where cars stop for tyres, so they set off after the rest of the field (FIA document 84). Russell had climbed to seventh when a second virtual safety car came out, seemingly the ideal moment to make his stop, but race control ended it as he entered the pits, and he lost places to Liam Lawson, Nico Hulkenberg and Pierre Gasly (RaceFans). He passed Gasly back and finished ninth (RaceFans; FIA document 87). Hadjar, of Red Bull, had to start from the pit lane after his team changed engine parts and his suspension settings under parc fermé, the rules that freeze a car's set-up from qualifying until the race; he took tenth and the last championship point (FIA documents 83 and 87; RaceFans).

Gabriel Bortoleto's Audi and Stroll's Aston Martin each caused a virtual safety car when they retired; according to RaceFans, Bortoleto stopped with a clutch problem and his car briefly caught fire in the pit lane (RaceFans). Franco Colapinto of Alpine also retired (FIA document 87).

According to RaceFans' unofficial standings, Antonelli now has 340 points to Russell's 238, a lead of 102 with six races left, and Verstappen moves up to fourth on 221, behind Hamilton on 229 (RaceFans). The FIA has not yet published official points after the race. According to the BBC, Antonelli can clinch his first world title at the next race, the United States Grand Prix in Austin on 25 October, if he wins and Russell finishes ninth or lower (BBC Sport).