Verstappen finally tames Marina Bay as Hamilton’s soft-tyre gamble unravels

Ten attempts. No wins. Until tonight.

Max Verstappen led every lap of a hot, humid Singapore Grand Prix to take his first win at Marina Bay, the 73rd of his career, in his 250th Grand Prix start. He finished 7.3 seconds ahead of Charles Leclerc, with Kimi Antonelli third. Total race time? One hour, 42 minutes and change.

And he won with a faulty radio. Late in the race, race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase struggled to hear Verstappen, and Red Bull fell back on the pit board to talk to their driver. Old school.

You won't find a cleaner weekend this season. Verstappen took Sprint pole, won the Sprint, took Grand Prix pole and then won the Grand Prix. The Grand Prix pole was his first at this venue. The streak started last weekend, when he won the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, before he mastered a wet-dry Sprint in Singapore while George Russell crashed out and the McLaren drivers collided. The official Sprint report has the full story.

Even the weekend's one wobble went his way. During Sprint Qualifying, Verstappen passed Lewis Hamilton under a single yellow flag. The stewards accepted he had breached the rule but judged he reacted properly, blamed a big difference in closing speed and imposed no penalty. Here's the full stewards' explanation.

Afterwards, Verstappen said "We had pace when we needed to have it" and admitted the medium tyre gave everyone a harder time.

The moment went out on Formula 1's official X account seconds after the flag.

How Ferrari lost the podium

Leclerc gave Verstappen a fright at the start. After a strong launch from second, Leclerc lost out as Verstappen cut across to keep the lead into Turn 1. In the opening laps the Ferrari sat 0.6 seconds behind, close enough for Overtake Mode, before the gap grew again. Hamilton, the only one of the top three on mediums, slipped back slightly.

Gabriel Bortoleto stopped near the pit exit with an apparent gearbox failure and triggered a Virtual Safety Car. Once the Audi had been pushed back into the pit lane, the car caught fire, and marshals put out the flames while the pit entry closed briefly.

Then came the Ferrari radio chatter. Leclerc asked for "Plan C", the opposite of Red Bull's approach. Hamilton was told to lift his pace for Plan C, replied he had nothing more, and the team pointed him towards Plan B instead.

Here's how the stops unfolded:

• Lap 19: Hamilton switched to softs, rejoined seventh and passed Liam Lawson for sixth on Lap 21
• Lap 24: Antonelli pitted for mediums
• Lap 25: Leclerc stopped and rejoined a fraction ahead of Hamilton, who complained of losing two seconds in a single lap behind his teammate
• Lap 33: Verstappen moved from softs to mediums and kept the lead, after building a 17.9 second gap by Lap 28

Lap 39 changed the race behind Verstappen. Lance Stroll stopped at Turn 15 with a clutch problem, bringing out a second Virtual Safety Car. Leclerc and Antonelli both took a second set of tyres. Hamilton stayed out on softs fitted 20 laps earlier.

Leclerc rejoined third, around 10 seconds behind Hamilton. The gap shrank fast. Leclerc retook second place on Lap 46, and Hamilton's pace fell away as Norris and Antonelli closed in on fresher rubber.

With 10 laps to go, Norris sat within half a second of Hamilton. Hamilton ran wide defending from the McLaren, Antonelli slipped past Norris and then took third from Hamilton at Turn 16. The pass came on Lap 55. Stewards looked at Hamilton for leaving the track and gaining an advantage, then took no further action.

Norris went through next. Oscar Piastri, who needed a second stop on Lap 42 after a slow puncture, kept attacking and finally made his move on Hamilton at Turn 16, on the final lap.

Third to sixth in eight laps. Hamilton apologised to his crew over team radio, telling them "Sorry, boys", and appeared to take the blame for the decision to skip a second stop.

Leclerc, for his part, admitted Ferrari "did a different strategy to Max" and said his tyres faded after a strong opening phase. Was Hamilton's long soft stint the wrong call? On the evidence of the final eight laps, yes.

Antonelli's messy but valuable third

Nothing about Antonelli's podium came easily. Before the start, mechanics worked on the brakes of his Mercedes on the grid. During the race:

• He exceeded track limits twice at Turn 2 and later saw the black-and-white flag, putting him at risk of a penalty
• He reported fluid leaking between his feet, and the team put the problem down to heat soak
• He asked engineer Pete Bonnington to check the car after strange behaviour, then reported brake struggles after his second stop

Still, he picked off Norris and Hamilton when he needed to.

The numbers tell the story. Before Singapore, Antonelli led Russell by 84 points with seven rounds left. After Sunday, Antonelli has 340 points to Russell's 238. A 102-point gap, six rounds to go.

Russell's weekend was grim from Friday. An engine penalty dropped him to 19th on the grid. He climbed to 15th by Lap 5 and passed Esteban Ocon into Turn 16. Russell made his only stop as the second Virtual Safety Car ended, so he gained less than the others. A pass on Pierre Gasly into Turn 7 on Lap 48 lifted him to ninth, but he got stuck behind Nico Hulkenberg. Two points from Sunday. Nothing from Saturday.

The rest of the field

Lawson took seventh for Racing Bulls, with Hulkenberg eighth for Audi. Isack Hadjar started from the pit lane after extra power unit parts, following a Q1 exit, and claimed the final point. Fernando Alonso and Stroll also started from the pit lane.

Three cars retired: Stroll with a suspected clutch issue, Franco Colapinto with a driveline problem and Bortoleto with his gearbox failure. Alex Albon retired late but still classified 18th.

The full classification has the top 10 as:

• Max Verstappen, Red Bull
• Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
• Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
• Lando Norris, McLaren
• Oscar Piastri, McLaren
• Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari
• Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls
• Nico Hulkenberg, Audi
• George Russell, Mercedes
• Isack Hadjar, Red Bull

For the lap-by-lap detail, read the official F1 race report, Pit Debrief's breakdown and Total Motorsport's write-up. GPblog's results page lists the lap times, Yahoo Sports' live blog has the radio reaction, and Grande Premio has more on Antonelli's afternoon.

Next stop, Austin. After a weekend off, the season resumes at the United States Grand Prix on 23 to 25 October. Verstappen arrives on a two-race winning streak. Antonelli arrives 102 points clear. Only one of those numbers decides a title.