Singapore put on another spectacular show over the weekend, with Mercedes’ George Russell charging to a surprise pole position and victory, McLaren sealing successive Teams’ Championships, title rivals Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri clashing and much, much more…
Behind the inspired Russell, a strong P2 finish for Max Verstappen and Red Bull continued their recent positive momentum, while Norris’ bold first-lap pass on team mate Piastri led to the Australian’s championship lead being cut once more.
Elsewhere, Ferrari endured a tough weekend at a track they have mastered on so many occasions, Aston Martin racer Fernando Alonso experienced a particularly eventful evening, and F1 ACADEMY delivered some box office title race drama.
With plenty to review up and down the order, here is F1.com’s usual post-race review of everything that happened at Marina Bay…
Russell makes a Singapore statement
Russell’s weekend started in tricky circumstances when he put it in the barriers a third of the way through Friday’s second practice session and lost some valuable, representative track time – the Briton subsequently apologising to Mercedes.
However, both the driver and the team came back fighting on Saturday to emerge as outside challengers for pole position, despite the typically hot and humid conditions that have worked against their package in recent years.
After topping Q2, Russell came out flying in Q3 to put a lap on the board that only he would beat across the second sequence of runs, earning himself and the Silver Arrows their first P1 start since June’s Canadian Grand Prix.
Russell picked up where he left off when the lights went out on Sunday night, keeping the soft-shod Verstappen behind him into Turn 1, driving into the distance and then calmly managing the gap back to the cars behind.
It was a statement fifth career Grand Prix victory that adds to an already stellar 2025 season for Russell, who will be able to proudly point to the performance as negotiations over a new Mercedes contract rumble on…
Another clash and another title for McLaren
After missing out on a chance to wrap up the Teams’ Championship at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, McLaren headed to Singapore’s Marina Bay Street Circuit with much better odds – needing just 13 points to seal the deal.
Zak Brown and Andrea Stella’s hearts must have been in their mouths at the race start, though, when Norris’ dive down the inside of Piastri ended with the pair banging wheels and the latter just about keeping his car out of the wall.
“That wasn’t very teamlike, but sure,” said a frustrated Piastri on the radio, before he followed up with: “So, are we cool with Lando just barging me out of the way?”
Ultimately, the stewards – and the McLaren pit wall – opted against taking any further action, with Norris and his slightly damaged front wing going on to finish third, a few seconds ahead of Piastri in fourth.
“It’s racing,” Norris argued afterwards, pointing to the track still being slippery thanks to some pre-race showers. “I put it on the inside, I had a small correction, but nothing more than that. It was good racing.”
Either way, the P3/P4 return was more than enough to confirm McLaren as back-to-back champions, something the squad had not achieved since the early-1990s – when F1 legends Ayrton Senna and Gerhard Berger were at the wheel.
Verstappen continues to chip away in the standings
Despite failing to make it a hat-trick of F1 victories, Verstappen did manage to outscore both McLaren drivers for the third consecutive race in Singapore and keep himself in the mix for an unlikely fifth world title.
A gamble to start on soft tyres and launch ahead of polesitter George Russell ultimately failed, and thereafter, Verstappen’s attention for much of the race around the Marina Bay Street Circuit turned towards keeping Norris behind.
This he did, despite locking up and running deep at Turn 14 on one occasion, as well as having to defend from Norris into the heavy braking zone of Turn 7.
With Drivers’ Championship leader Piastri fourth, Verstappen sits 63 points behind the Australian and 41 points behind Norris ahead of the final six Grands Prix (and three Sprints), meaning he remains a thorn in the side of the McLaren duo.
“Unfortunately I think the whole race was quite difficult, more difficult than I hoped for, for a lot of different reasons – let’s say it like that,” said Verstappen, who has still yet to win in Singapore.
“There are a few things that we need to understand, why these things went wrong today, but even then, around here even if you have more pace, you can’t pass without anything crazy happening. I think for us second was then the maximum result.”
Alonso’s eventful run to eighth – then seventh
Alonso enjoyed one of his strongest races of the 2025 campaign in Singapore by finishing seventh and proving to be the ‘best of the rest’ behind the leading teams.
The Aston Martin driver made up two places in the opening laps from a P10 starting position and was managing a comfortable pace on Pirelli’s soft tyres over Isack Hadjar, before a slow pit stop dropped him behind the Racing Bulls rookie.
With still impressive speed on the medium rubber, Alonso was able to retake the position and closed to within five seconds of Lewis Hamilton by the chequered flag, enough for him to be promoted at the expense of the Ferrari man due to a post-race penalty.
“It was a very good race for us,” said Alonso, who has finished in the points seven times in the last 10 Grands Prix. “The car felt fast in the first stint, we opened a nice gap with the soft tyre – it lasted longer than we expected, so that was very good news.
“Then [we had] a slow pit stop, but the car was still very fast in the second stint, and we finished in the same position. Some fun battles. Singapore is never [an] easy [place] to overtake, but as I said, I had an advantage on the tyre as well.”
What happened to Ferrari’s challenge?
The start of the race appeared to hint at promise for Ferrari, Charles Leclerc having overtaken Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli to move up into fifth place early on. That pace seemed to fall away later on, however, with Antonelli retaking the place and crossing the line with a sizeable margin of just over 12 seconds from Leclerc.
Hamilton, meanwhile, switched positions with Leclerc in the latter stages in an attempt to catch Antonelli – only to then experience a brake issue, resulting in the swap being reversed and the seven-time World Champion ending the race in P7.
To make matters worse, Hamilton was hit with a five-second time penalty post-race after being found guilty of “leaving the track without justifiable reason multiple times” whilst managing his brake problems during the latter stages, dropping him down to P8.
With six race weekends remaining in the 2025 season, Ferrari are now 25 points behind Mercedes in the battle for P2 of the Teams’ Championship, while Red Bull are just 10 points adrift of the Scuderia in P4.
Leclerc offered a downbeat assessment of the squad’s prospects going forward, commenting after the Singapore race: “We are struggling massively with the car – it’s not easy.
“I wish I could say that I’m positive for the rest of the season, [but] I don’t think there’s anything in the car at the moment that proves [to] me we are going to do a step forwards.”
F1 ACADEMY title race goes down to the final round
It was a thrilling weekend of action in the penultimate round of the 2025 F1 ACADEMY series, with Lia Block taking her debut victory in the category during Race 1 on Saturday.
This was followed up by an eventful Race 2 on Sunday. Maya Weug initially lost the lead to title rival Doriane Pin off the line, but the order was shaken up when the Safety Car was deployed following a crash for Nicola Havrda, the rain having fallen at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.
With Pin unable to charge away at the restart given the challenging conditions, Weug pulled off a bold overtake on the last lap to snatch the victory.
As well as marking a third win of the season for Weug, the result also means that the title fight will go down to the wire when F1 ACADEMY heads to Las Vegas for its 2025 finale in November, with Weug now just nine points away from leader Pin.
The stars come out under the lights
The stars turned out for Singapore, with a plethora of singers and actors spotted up and down the pit lane, weaving in and out of the garages as they got up and personal with the F1 machinery.
Smashing Pumpkins were seen down at Haas, while Mel C whipped the crowd into a frenzy before the race and Lewis Capaldi headed to the grid before lights out to have a closer look at some of the cars.
New Superman actor David Corenswet said he was supporting Red Bull, with the Austrian team also visited by boy band sensation ENHYPEN as they garnered plenty of support amongst the celebrities.
Comedian Jake Whitehall was on hand to crack some jokes as well, but the last laugh went to McLaren who did more than enough to secure yet another Teams’ title.
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