Max Verstappen won the Singapore Grand Prix for the first time on October 11, his 250th Formula 1 start and 73rd Grand Prix win, according to the official race report. He completed 62 laps of the Marina Bay Street Circuit in 1:42:00.785. The F1 circuit guide lists 4.927 kilometres and 19 turns per lap, or 305.337 kilometres across the full race. Charles Leclerc finished 7.335 seconds behind, Kimi Antonelli was third at 24.573 seconds, and the McLaren pair of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri finished fourth and fifth. The Grand Prix started at 8 p.m. Singapore time, according to Formula 1’s official timetable. The official report noted that Antonelli’s podium extended his championship lead.

How Sunday was won

Verstappen earned Grand Prix pole by beating Leclerc in qualifying. He defended into Turn 1, stayed ahead of the Ferrari and built a gap during the opening stint. The race ran in hot, humid conditions; Red Bull switched him from soft to medium tyres in a smooth stop and preserved his track position through the one-stop strategy.

A radio problem later interrupted contact with the pit wall. Red Bull used pit boards to relay information, and Verstappen managed the remaining laps without surrendering the lead. His result came from a controlled start, a clean stop and a steady final stint rather than a late pass. Afterward, Verstappen said Red Bull had pace when needed on both the soft and medium tyres, as he explained in his post-race comments.

A red soft tyre leads through one abstract pit-stop marker to a yellow medium tyre, labelled SOFT → MEDIUM.
Concept diagram: Formula 1 reports Verstappen changed from soft to medium tyres at his mid-race stop in the 2026 Singapore Grand Prix; this is not race telemetry.

A first Sprint in Singapore

The 2026 weekend added a new format for Marina Bay: Singapore’s first Sprint. Before the Sprint, stewards reviewed Verstappen’s pass of Lewis Hamilton under yellow in Sprint Qualifying, after Sergio Perez’s Cadillac hit the barriers. The stewards found that Verstappen breached the yellow-flag rule when he passed Hamilton, but said the circumstances did not warrant a penalty, so he kept Sprint pole.

A downpour soaked the first and third sectors while leaving the middle sector damp. The start was delayed by about half an hour, and all drivers began on intermediate tyres. The field completed two formation laps behind the safety car before the standing start.

George Russell passed Verstappen at the start but crashed at the final corner of Lap 1. The safety car stayed out through Lap 6; when racing resumed, Verstappen kept the lead and managed the tyres as the circuit dried. The leaders did not switch to slicks. Hamilton had climbed from sixth to third on the opening lap, then inherited second after Russell’s crash. At halfway, Verstappen led Hamilton by 1.3 seconds.

He won the 21-lap Sprint in 39:48.162, with Hamilton 2.591 seconds behind and Leclerc third. Formula 1’s Sprint report gives the weather and restart details.

Verstappen said afterward that his Sprint start had been poor and that he was already focused on Sunday’s Grand Prix. Sprint and Grand Prix points are scored separately: the Sprint winner earned eight, while a Grand Prix win earned 25. A Sprint result does not count as a Grand Prix start.

Why the venue mattered

Formula 1 first raced at Marina Bay in 2008. Verstappen had stood on the podium there four times before 2026, including second place in both 2024 and 2025; the 2026 race was his 10th attempt. Formula 1’s post-race account noted that Singapore made the new-for-2026 Madring the only current-calendar circuit where he had yet to win.

The next scheduled event is the United States Grand Prix on October 23-25, according to the 2026 calendar.