Max Verstappen celebrated his first career victory on the Marina Bay street circuit, a 73rd grand prix win that came in his milestone 250th race. The Red Bull driver started from pole position, held off Ferrari's lead driver Charles Leclerc into the first corner and was flawless over the 62-lap distance. A radio failure meant his engineers could communicate with him only through the pit board, yet the four-time world champion kept complete control of the race pace. He took the chequered flag 7.3 seconds clear of Leclerc, while Mercedes youngster Kimi Antonelli finished third to tighten his grip on the championship lead. "It's taken a while, but I think this race was very good," Verstappen said in a brief verdict on his drive.
Tension peaked further down the order, where McLaren's Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri shared fourth and fifth, while Ferrari's seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton lost places through a flawed pit-stop strategy and had to settle for sixth. Hamilton apologised to the team over the radio, admitting that the decision not to make a second stop had been his own mistake. The virtual safety car was deployed twice, including when a gearbox failure set Gabriel Bortoleto's Audi alight. Lance Stroll and Franco Colapinto, meanwhile, both retired with technical problems. The next round is the United States Grand Prix in Austin on 23-25 October.
