Key events
Sprint race report
Right, time to take a break till qualifying, at 2.30pm BST. Here’s a quick report:
double quotation markMax Verstappen won a wet and wild Singapore sprint race for Red Bull on Saturday after George Russell crashed his Mercedes when leading at the end of the opening lap. Verstappen held off Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton to win by 2.50sec with Charles Leclerc third as the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri touched and spun on the final lap when fourth and fifth.
A heavy shower 10 minutes before the scheduled start meant a delay of 30 minutes. All cars began on intermediate tyres with some sectors of the Marina Bay Street Circuit much dryer than others as the field embarked on two formation laps behind the safety car.
The eventual standing start saw Russell start on the front row alongside pole-sitter Verstappen, and it was the Englishman who got away better. His lead was short-lived as he lost control after touching a treacherous white line on the final bend of the opening lap. He slid sideways into the pit lane wall, bringing out a safety car.
It was another setback in a season of bad luck for Russell, who will start from the back of the grid in Sunday’s grand prix because of engine penalties. “It was a miscalculation,” Russell admitted to Sky Sports. “Came through the corner, had more battery deployment than I thought, pushed me a little bit wider than I hoped and went on to the white line. Silly mistake. Big consequences.”
It left Hamilton, who had a brilliant start from sixth on the grid, in second place having leapfrogged his Ferrari teammate Leclerc and the two McLarens.
The big beneficiary of Norris and Piastri’s “papaya spat” on the last lap was the championship leader, Kimi Antonelli, who inherited fourth place in his Mercedes having started seventh on the grid.
Fifth was RB’s Liam Lawson, sixth was the Haas of Oliver Bearman, seventh was Audi’s Nico Hülkenberg and Norris got going again to limp home in eighth and round out the points scorers. AFP
Plenty for the teams to chew over, and plenty to do for McLaren. See you later.
Max Verstappen with Charles Leclerc (left) and Lewis Hamilton (right) after an eventful sprint race. Photograph: Mark Sutton/Formula 1/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 07.12 EDT
Antonelli now leading by 89 points overall from Russell.
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Apologies, initially had Piastri in those standings instead of Hulkenberg.
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The points scorers
1 Max Verstappen 🇳🇱 Red Bull 39:48.162 – 8pts
2 Lewis Hamilton 🇬🇧 Ferrari +2.591 – 7pts
3 Charles Leclerc 🇲🇨 Ferrari +16.871 – 6pts
4 Kimi Antonelli 🇮🇹 Mercedes +17.238 – 5pts
5 Liam Lawson 🇳🇿 Racing Bulls +20.632 – 4pts
6 Oliver Bearman 🇬🇧 Haas +24.321 – 3pts
7 Nico Hülkenberg 🇩🇪 Audi +27.525 – 2pts
8 Lando Norris 🇬🇧 McLaren +28.272 – 1pt
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Updated at 06.49 EDT
Stella with a face like thunder, apparently, as he stormed in. Ted Kravitz points out the damage in the constructors’ standings, where McLaren could slip from champions to fourth.
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Will McLaren be left to sort it out? Or will the stewards take action. Zak Brown and Andrea Stella refuse to take questions.
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Back to Norris’s crash. Piastri says he’s not that bothered, given what was at stake – fourth and fifth in a sprint. But that’s quite damning for Norris. Why did he make a high-risk move for such a low reward?
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It’s only eight points. “I want to win tomorrow, not today.” Verstappen bats away compliments over winning on every circuit – sprints don’t really count.
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And now Verstappen, who has now won on every F1 track he has competed on. “The start was horrendous again, so that’s obviously something we need to improve on, because if you have something like that tomorrow that’s your race over … But we got a bit lucky with what happened with George … After that you just want to keep it a bit calm. You can’t pass around here, especially in conditions like this with the intermediates.”
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen celebrates winning the sprint race. Photograph: Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 06.45 EDT
Hamilton’s turn. “As soon as the heavens opened, ‘This is a great day.’ I tried to get close to him [Verstappen] without killing my tyres, I was reining him in.” But then the tyre problems kicked in and “it’s a tough track to overtake”.
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David Coulthard talks to Leclerc first and asks about tyre degradation. “Struggled a lot from mid-race onwards … When it dried up I was nowhere.” He was relieved the McLarens messed up as he was really struggling.
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What a mixed set of results for most teams. Only Ferrari of the leading quartet brought two cars home.
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Qualifying will be delayed
The timing is unclear but the hold-up for the rain means that we will not be back under way at 2pm.
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Norris says “Sorry about that. Obviously I didn’t want that to happen. But I thought I was alongside, I just ran out of space.”
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The problem for the McLaren pair was that Antonelli was so close to Norris that he almost had to push. But that was a mess for them. He did get going again and took eighth. Piastri will be angry.
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Verstappen wins
Not quite pole to chequered flag for Verstappen, given the Russell interlude, but wins from Hamilton and Leclerc.
Sprint winner Max Verstappen celebrates in parc ferme. Photograph: Mark Thompson/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 06.25 EDT
As Brundle says, McLaren will be furious.
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20/20. Norris and Piastri make contact and spin!
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19/20. Antonelli closing on Norris, but running out of track, and is it worth gambling for one point?
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Does Verstappen have some problems? Hamilton gaining but 3.7 back. Boost problems for the Dutchman, apparently.
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17/20. This is drifting. Except Norris is closing on Piastri. But Brundle points out that the McLarens can’t afford any contact in this tight run of races.
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Alex Albon is out now and under investigation for the Bortoleto incident.
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A couple of points of consolation for Russell. It was only the sprint, not the main race, and the damage did not seem to be too bad. But he will be starting from the back tomorrow and is seeing right now how difficult overtaking can be, albeit on intermediates in drying conditions.
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Brundle pours, er, cold water on the idea of anyone changing to slicks, because to overtake you would need to go off-line, which means you would find water. “We just want to see something, to be honest,” says Croft.
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12/20. Verstappen is now 2.6 clear of Hamilton. Are we going from carnage to a procession?
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen leads the field round the streets of Singapore. Photograph: Clive Mason/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 06.17 EDT
Antonelli making no progress in the surviving Mercedes. 2.1 behind Norris and the only place he has gained is because of Russell’s exit.
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Bortoleto and Bottas out. Seven gone, and as Croft says that’s a sprint race record.
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Hamilton reports “The track is fine. It’s drying, but it’s still wet … tiny wet in some places.” Will it get dry enough to merit a change of tyres?
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Hamilton has been noted for a yellow flag infringement. Details unclear.
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“Silly mistake, big consequences,” Russell admits.
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Hamilton is 1.1 behind Verstappen but 1.7 clear of Leclerc.
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Albon goes into the back of Bortoleto and both pit.
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Tyre management will now mean they need to seek out water, to keep the intermediates cool, Brundle points out.
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Lap 7/20. Verstappen ahead of Hamilton and Leclerc, then the two McLarens led by Piastri. Antonelli sixth.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen leads Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton. Photograph: Caroline Chia/ReutersShare
Updated at 06.13 EDT
The safety car is off. And away goes Verstappen back in the lead.
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Colapinto and Perez also out.
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We will back racing shortly.
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“Bleep. Sorry.” “Are you all right?” “Ah … Yeah, I’m fine. Sorry, sorry, sorry.” In a year of misfortunes, that was simply an error by Russell, unfortunately. White Lines (Don’t Don’t Do It).
F1 driving advice from Grandmaster Melle MelShare
Updated at 05.49 EDT
Stroll went off, trying to go past Perez.
Lance Stroll (right) and Sergio Perez collide. Photograph: Andy Hone/LAT ImagesShare
Updated at 06.03 EDT
