The Singapore Special
With one of the hottest tracks on the calendar and a street circuit that people are actually excited to see, the Singapore Grand Prix has always been an interesting race. With 305 km and 19 turns till the end, it is one of the most physically challenging races on the calendar. It's been a busy couple of weeks with back-to-back races and lots of speculation about the championship race. While we don’t know who’s going to win the title, we can see how the Singapore GP shook things up a little bit.
Sprint
We head into the sprint with Max Verstappen qualifying in pole position after beating out George Russell and Charles Leclerc by just 0.120 seconds. Right behind them was McLaren's Oscar Piastri in P4 and Lando Norris in P5. George Russell got a great start from P2 and was immediately able to take P1 from Verstappen; similarly, Lewis Hamilton in P6 was able to push ahead of both McLarens to P4. The semi-damp track made for an interesting sprint as Russell crashed into the wall on lap 2, putting the race into a yellow flag. Then we saw Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll crash as Stroll tried to prevent Perez from overtaking him. We then saw a line of DNF’s due to multiple different crashes and other car-based issues. The sprint race went from 22 drivers down to 14 by lap 18 of 20. In the end, Verstappen takes the win with Hamilton and Leclerc right behind him.
Qualifying
Verstappen was on pole again with the same 0.1 second gap between him and Leclerc in P2 and Hamilton right behind them. Q1 headed into a yellow flag as Isack Hadjar dealt with multiple mechanical issues that ended up with him stopped on the track. Q2 and Q3 passed without major issues but lots of back and forth as all of the drivers worked to best Verstappen’s time. Kimi Antonelli and Lando Norris rounded out the top five.
Race
The starting grid was almost exactly the same as qualifying, except for Russell because of his new power unit penalty. Verstappen started the race with a great late-breaking move that helped him keep the lead. Oliver Bearman overtook his teammate Esteban Ocon and Carlos Sainz with some incredible maneuvering. Gabriel Bortoleto’s gearbox failed, moving the race into a yellow flag. Lance Stroll then had clutch issues, which brought out the safety car.
Leclerc attempted to use a tire change to stay ahead of Norris, and Antonelli was right behind in the pit lane. With the fresher tires, Leclerc overtook his teammate Hamilton for P2. Russell, who started in P19, climbed his way to P9 by lap 48 of 62.
Norris attempted to overtake Hamilton but was unable to, and in the middle of this, Anontelli was able to get ahead of Norris into P4 and then ahead of Hamilton and onto the podium. Norris was then able to overtake Hamilton, who had been struggling with his tires for some time. Isack Hadjar, who had started the race in the last position, was able to climb up 12 places by the last lap. Max Verstappen took the win for the very first time in Singapore, and Charles Leclerc and Kimi Antonelli rounded out the podium. The Austin Grand Prix is up next, and it will be an interesting one as Antonelli has enough points to possibly win the championship.
