Russell takes controlled Singapore victory, McLaren crowned champions
Pole sitter George Russell controlled the 62-lap race at Singapore from start to finish to secure a brilliant victory under the lights. Max Verstappen finished in second while McLaren's third and fourth was enough to secure the Constructors' Championship.
The Singapore Grand Prix is known to be a very strategical race where the correct pit call or some luck with the safety car could turn things around quickly. Every event here has seen at least one Safety Car except for the previous edition in 2024.
In front, Russell starts on medium fro pole position, just like Piastri in third. Verstappen on the other hand opted for soft tyres but Russell easily took advantage of his pole position and was the first to come out of the first corner.
Verstappen was an easy second but behind him the McLarens bumped into each other to the detriment of Piastri who had to back out and settle for fourth. The Australian noted "Well that wasn't very team-like, but sure...". Indeed, Norris's fairly heavy bump into his teammate triggered a further communication with Piastri wondering whether it was now okay to bump the other car out of the way. He also quickly saw the three cars ahead run away from him while Norris, despite minor front wing endplate damage closely chased Verstappen. Russell meanwhile sprinted away form the trouble behind him.
Leclerc followed in fifth after passing Hamilton at the start and Antonelli round the outside of Turn 1. Behind Hamilton, Alonso was 8th after benefiting from a coming together of Hadjar and Bearman at Turn 1. Hadjar had gone to the outside to defend from Bearman, leading them to bump wheels and enabling the Spaniard to overtake both before Turn 3.
By lap 12, Russell had pulled a 6 second advantage over Verstappen while the Red Bull and the two chasing McLarens were all three separated by about 1.5 seconds. Just like most cars behind they weren't seeking to battle and instead opting to maintain a bit of a gap to preserve the tyres.
Three seconds behind Piastri we saw the same situation with Leclerc, Antonelli and Hamilton all equally distanced one from the other. Behind this trio, Alonso and Hadjar followed 7.5 seconds further behind on their soft tyres.
On lap 14 Bortoleto was pitted to exchange his damaged nose cone from the start.
Three laps later, Norris brushed the wall as he edged closer to Verstappen while Piastri quickly lost touch with the duo ahead of him. On lap 18 Norris was called to "box to overtake Verstappen", only to be told "stay out!" one corner before pit entry. This looked more like tactics by McLaren to try to force Red Bull's hand.
On lap 20 Verstappen pitted while McLaren's mechanics were also out but returned to the box without having to do anything. Verstappen returned to the track in 8th, just ahead of Fernando Alonso who had managed to pull away from Hadjar. The latter pitted another lap later and rejoined alongside but eventually ahead of Colapinto in 17th place.
Leclerc pitted on lap 22, switching to hard tyres like everybody else to return in 10th, closely behind Hulkenberg who he quickly passed.
For Verstappen meanwhile things went smoothly as clean air, extended by Hamilton pitting on lap 25 allowed him to set several fastest laps. As Russell up in front said his tyres were fading, Mercedes opted to pit him on lap 26, immediately followed by Antonelli. Russell returned to the track little more than 3 seconds ahead of Verstappen.
Norris was pitted from the lead another lap later and rejoined in 4th, 5 seconds down on Verstappen. Piastri was up next to protect him from losing a position to Leclerc. The stop was poor though with 5.2s at a standstill but good enough to stay ahead of the Ferrari. Alonso was worse off as a 9.2 second pitstop saw him drop behind Hadjar.
As Stroll maintained 9th, backing up Sainz and Bearman, Alonso got ahead of Hadjar again following a few corners of close fighting. Sadly for Stroll, when he did eventually pit he dropped back to last while Sainz and Bearman were able to up their pace.
Up ahead, Verstappen locked up lost a couple of seconds, leading to a bit of swearing on the radio and dropping 4.5s behind Russell. Norris on the other hand had seen the event and turned up the which, reducing his deficit to the Red Bull to 1.4 seconds. Before Norris could start to think to really put pressure on Verstappen though he went wide at Turn 17 and lost a second himself.
Alonso went on to pass Albon for 11th, forcing the Williams driver into a fierce defensive move that not only cost him the position but also a major flat spot on his right front. The Williams was pitted one lap later for fresh softs, taking over last place from Stroll. One lap later Hulkenberg locked up the rears under braking. He spun off but managed to continue, behind Albon, so last. He also pitted at the end of that lap, possibly to make really sure he was last.
By lap 47 Norris had recovered from his own mistake earlier and thanks to some traffic managed to get very close to Verstappen. All this traffic also gave Verstappen the chance to use DRS making it difficult to Norris to quickly attempt an overtake.
Alonso meanwhile was on a mission to recover from the poor stop and went on to overtake Sainz and Lawson in the same lap, moving him up to 8th, 45 seconds down on Hamilton in 7th.
With 10 laps remaining, Russell maintained a solid advantage over Verstappen and Norris who continued to appear glued together. Piastri followed 4.5s behind, then Leclerc and Antonelli closely together at 15s from Piastri. Hamilton followed at another 5 seconds further back.
Leclerc though wasn't in a happy place and was soon passed by Antonelli for 5th. Hamilton on soft tyres also quickly came within DRS range and overtook his teammate in lap 56. Hamilton's pace on the soft enabled him to come witin DRS range of Antonelli with 3 laps remaining before sudenly backing out, nothing "I've lost my brakes". This enabled Leclerc to re-pass his teammate once again as Hamilton was forced to dramatically reduce his pace over the final two laps and finish 7th with just 0.4s remaining over Fernando Alonso.
As Norris continued to pressure Verstappen, Piastri edged ever closer to the battling duo but they eventually all stayed in the same positions. George Russell had a perfect day and won after virtually leading the race from start to finish.
With third and fourth for McLaren, the team herewith also secured the Constructors' Championship on the back of winning it in 2024 as well, a feat the team haven't been able to do since the 90's.
