George Russell claimed a dominant victory at the Singapore Grand Prix, with Verstappen finishing second after technical issues and Norris taking third.
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After a difficult Friday — during which George even had a minor crash — no one would have expected Mercedes to take pole position, let alone win the race in such a dominant fashion. Even Mercedes themselves were surprised. "If I were to make a list of all the races I thought we could win at this year, this would probably be right at the bottom. So I think we need to sit down tomorrow and Tuesday to sort of understand why the performance was so good." said Russell.
For George himself, this marks his fifth career victory, once again proving to Toto Wolff that he truly deserves a new contract. His teammate, Kimi Antonelli, finished in fifth place.
Max Verstappen likely extracted everything — and perhaps more — from his car. Despite the technical problems he complained about during the race and the late pressure from Lando Norris, he held his ground and managed to secure second place. Yuki Tsunoda finished outside the points in twelfth position.
It was a busy race for the papaya-colored McLaren team. Starting from fifth, Lando Norris managed to overtake Oscar Piastri in Turn 2, though he slightly damaged his front wing in the process. Piastri later called for “Papaya rules,” claiming Norris’s move was unfair and that the team should intervene. However, no team orders were issued, and Piastri had to settle for fourth place, while Norris finished third — closing the gap to the championship leader by three points. The difference between first-placed Piastri and second-placed Norris now stands at 22 points.
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Ferrari endured a tough weekend, with both drivers struggling just to finish the race. Both suffered brake failures — most notably Hamilton, who began cutting chicanes in the final laps as his brakes completely gave up. He was handed a five-second penalty after the race, dropping him to eighth place, while Leclerc finished sixth.
One standout performance came from Carlos Sainz, who climbed from 18th on the grid to finish in tenth place and score a point. It’s also worth noting that both Williams cars were disqualified from qualifying due to excessive clearance between the DRS flap and the main plane of the rear wing. As a result, both Sainz and Albon started from the back of the grid.
Formula 1 now heads to American soil next week — specifically to Austin, Texas, for the traditional race at the COTA.