Max Verstappen wins chaotic Singapore Grand Prix sprint with nine retirements

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took the race win at the Singapore Grand Prix, ahead of Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, after a chaotic start to the event’s inaugural sprint race.

Feature image credit: Getty Images // Red Bull Content Pool

Verstappen has claimed his second consecutive win of the season, of any format, at the Singapore Grand Prix sprint, following on from his victory in Sepang last week. It also marked as his first at the Marina Bay Street Circuit. 

Just 10 minutes before the start of the sprint race, the heavens opened, quickly producing a soaked track. As a result of the heavy rainfall, Race Control confirmed a delayed start to the sprint. 

After a 30 minute delay, the sprint race finally got underway with a couple of formation laps behind the safety car kicking off proceedings, with everyone naturally starting on green-walled intermediate tyres. 

The safety car was brought out lap two, after Mercedes’ George Russell crashed into the pit wall having snatched the lead, with a further seven other drivers retiring throughout the sprint. 

William’s Carlos Sainz was the only driver to start from the pit lane after the Spaniard’s car had some set-up changes on the car’s suspension. 

Sprint Race Results: Singapore Grand Prix

How the race unfolded?

When the lights went out, it was a great start from Russell, who overtook the Sprint polesitter, Verstappen, into the opening corner. At the same time, Hamilton got a stunning get away off the line to jump to third from sixth. However, Russell’s lead was short-lived.

The yellow flag was quickly shown, before the Safety Car was deployed, after Russell crashed on the pit straight. Onboards showed he lost control on the corner exit, having touched the exit kerb slightly which sent his car into the barrier. 

It meant Verstappen had taken over as the race leader, ahead of Hamilton and Leclerc. 

However, Russell was not the only early retirement Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, at the end of the first lap, parked up at turn 16, having made contact with Cadillac’s Sergio Perez. Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar also pulled off the track on the third lap and down into an access road to retire with  a suspected power unit issue. 

Alpine’s Franco Colapinto, on the fourth lap, was the next to retire having stopped out on track at turn 14.

Embed from Getty Images

At the end of lap six, the race finally resumed with Verstappen bolting away on the exit of turn 17, with the two Ferraris right behind. 

By the halfway mark of the race, the track had dried out with some drivers claiming the circuit was improving, but remained wet in parts. By lap 15, the four-time world champion had a comfortable four-second lead over seven-time world champion Hamilton. 

On lap 16, only 14 cars remained in the sprint as Williams’ Alexander Albon was instructed to box his car – four laps to the end – to retire from the race. 

At the final lap, there was even more drama, as the two McLaren’s tangled at turn five. Lando Norris darted down the inside of his teammate, Oscar Piastri, in a bid to overtake the Australian, but they connected and two spun out. 

The defending world champion was able to recover to eighth whilst Piastri could only retire on the spot, with Norris vocalising that he believed he was fully alongside his teammate when the collision occurred.. 

Verstappen went on to claim the victory relatively unchallenged, 2.5 seconds ahead of Hamilton with Leclerc 16 seconds behind the Dutchman. 

Max Verstappen avoids punishment for Singapore yellow flag infringment

Sprint Race result: 

22 – Lance Stroll, Aston Martin – DNF 

21 –  Sergio Perez, Cadillac – DNF 

20 – George Russell, Mercedes – DNF

19 – Isack Hadjar, Red Bull Racing – DNF

18 – Franco Colapinto, Alpine – DNF

17 – Valtteri Bottas, Cadillac – DNF

16 – Gabriel Bortoleto, Audi – DNF

15 – Alexander Albon, Williams – DNF

14 – Oscar Piastri, McLaren – DNF

13 – Arvid Lindblad, Racing Bulls +55.792s

12 – Carlos Sainz, Williams +52.467s

11 – Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin +50.464s

10 – Esteban Ocon, Haas +37.640s

9 – Pierre Gasly, Alpine +36.220s

8 – Lando Norris, McLaren +28.272s

7 – Nico Hulkenberg, Audi +27.525s

6 – Oliver Bearman, Haas +24.321s

5 – Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls +20.632s

4 – Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes +17.238s

3 – Charles Leclerc, Ferrari +16.871s

2 – Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari +2.591s

1 – Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing

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