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Hear from Max after his win in Singapore
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Hear from Max after his win in Singapore
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Hear from Isack after his race in Singapore
1 min
Hear from Isack after his race in Singapore
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Max masters Marina Bay at last as Isack battles to a point
Max Verstappen celebrated his 250th F1 Grand Prix with a commanding lights-to-flag maiden win in Singapore. The Dutchman dominated a punishing evening at the Marina Bay Street Circuit to finish seven seconds clear of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, with Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli third. Isack Hadjar, meanwhile, delivered a gritty performance to climb from a pit lane start to 10th and claim a point.
Max masters Marina Bay at last as Isack battles to a point
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It's taken a while, but I think this race was very good!
“We had pace when we needed to have it on the Soft tyre and on the Medium, even though I think the Medium tyre for everyone was a bit more of a struggle. But it worked out, so of course very happy to win here.” said Max of victory at a track where he had previously scored four podiums but no wins.
After recovering from a poor getaway to win yesterday’s Sprint, Max had said there was work to do overnight. When the lights went out for the Grand Prix, his and the Team’s efforts were rewarded. Max initially got away slowly, but a strong second phase allowed him to fend off Charles and lead out of Turn 1.
At the other end of the order, Isack started from the pit lane on Medium tyres and moved into P20 behind Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso as the race got under way.
Having converted pole into the lead, Max immediately got his head down and set about breaking out of Charles’ overtake mode range. On lap 7, he set the fastest lap of the race to move 1.2 seconds clear of the Ferrari driver, with Lewis Hamilton another 1.6 seconds back in third, ahead of Kimi and Lando Norris.
On lap 8, a Virtual Safety Car was deployed when Gabriel Bortoleto pulled over at the pit exit with a gearbox issue. With the Brazilian’s stranded Audi threatening a pit lane closure, the field stayed out. That caution proved justified when Gabriel’s brakes caught fire and the pit lane was closed while marshals dealt with the incident.
When the VSC ended, Charles immediately cut Max’s advantage to 0.7 seconds. Max responded, quickly pulling 1.3 seconds clear again. Further back, Isack was making progress and, by lap 13, had passed Fernando, Cadillac’s Sergio Pérez and Williams’ Alex Albon to rise to P16.
At the front, GP told Max over the radio that extending his opening stint on Softs would help his race. The Dutchman continued to build his lead over Charles, stretching it to 4.4 seconds.
At the end of lap 18, Hamilton, who had started on Mediums, was the first of the leaders to pit. The Ferrari driver switched to Softs and dropped from P3 to P7. None of his rivals responded, and Max set two more fastest laps on his starting Softs to extend his lead to 6.7 seconds by the start of lap 21.
Max’s advantage then grew to nine seconds, before second placed Charles stopped on lap 25, fitted Medium tyres and rejoined just ahead of Lewis.
Further back, Isack was finding progress through the lower order difficult. Although he passed Arvid Lindblad and Esteban Ocon, he reached half-distance in P14 behind the other Williams of Carlos Sainz.
On lap 32, Max dived into the pit lane and switched to Medium tyres in a swift 2.2-second stop. He rejoined in the lead, although his longer opening stint had allowed Charles to reduce the gap to 4.6 seconds, with Lewis a further 1.5 seconds back in third. However, with Max now on fresher tyres, the gap soon began to widen again.
Isack stopped on lap 34, exchanging his opening Mediums for Softs. He rejoined in P15, still behind Carlos, who had also pitted. He muscled past the Spaniard on lap 36, but further progress again proved difficult.
On lap 39, another VSC was deployed when Lance Stroll suffered a clutch issue and stopped at the side of the track. Charles took the opportunity to pit, switching from Mediums to the quicker Softs. Max stayed out and continued to control the race, running 11 seconds ahead of Lewis, who was lapping considerably slower than his team-mate. On lap 46, Lewis made way for Leclerc, who was 15.2 seconds behind Max with 16 laps remaining.
Charles began to close in, reducing the gap to just over eight seconds with nine laps to go. His pursuit was not Max’s only complication: the Dutchman’s radio was also failing, forcing the Team to keep him informed through pit boards.
Further back, Isack had gained ground, passing Esteban again to reach P11 with five laps remaining, right on the tail of Pierre Gasly’s Alpine. On lap 59, he powered past his compatriot at Turn 5 to move into the points.
At the front, Max remained in control. After 62 draining laps, he crossed the line to claim his second grand prix win of 2026, the 73rd of his career and, at the 10th attempt, his first Singapore Grand Prix victory.
The last few races have been really positive for us.
“It's great to see and we have a lot of motivation in the team to try and deliver even more results. It's a really good group of people. I really enjoy working with them. Hopefully we can have a bit more fun till the end of the year.” Max said.
Behind the top three, Lando took fourth ahead of McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri, while Lewis dropped to sixth after a long second stint on Softs failed to pay off. Liam Lawson took a strong P7 for VCARB ahead of Audi’s Nico Hülkenberg, with George Russell ninth in the second Mercedes and Isack completing the points finishers in a hard-fought 10th.