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Red Bull's Max Verstappen delivered a commanding performance to win the Singapore Grand Prix from pole position on Sunday, securing his second straight victory of the season after a perfect weekend that included a sprint race triumph.The Dutchman controlled the race from the start at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, fending off an early challenge from Ferrari's Charles Leclerc who finished second while Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli was third to close in on a first title.Verstappen, who won the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia last weekend, had never won in Singapore before and he had come into the race weekend stating he had "unfinished business"."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, even though I think the medium tyre for everyone was more of a struggle," Verstappen said."But it worked out, so of course very happy to win here... The last two races have been really positive for us and it's just great to see."Antonelli extended his championship lead over teammate George Russell to 102 points and the Italian can mathematically win the title in the next round in Austin."Can I? Really?" a surprised Antonelli said when he was told after his 14th podium of the season."Well, let's not worry about that. Let's try to do the best weekend as possible and finish the job."Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton had qualified third on the grid but he endured a torrid evening, slipping to sixth behind Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri after the two McLaren drivers overtook him in the dying stages as he struggled with his tyres.Russell, who started at the back of the grid due to engine penalties, finished ninth behind Liam Lawson and Nico Hulkenberg while Isack Hadjar - who also started at the back - was 10th. VERSTAPPEN SHUTS THE DOORLeclerc reacted faster than polesitter Verstappen at the start, nearly lining up alongside the Dutchman heading into turn one, but the Red Bull driver veered to the left to shut the door on the Ferrari and retain his lead.As the race progressed, Verstappen steadily pulled clear on soft tyres, with Red Bull urging him to manage their life as Ferrari threatened an undercut.Hamilton's struggles became apparent early as he lost pace on medium tyres in third place and Ferrari brought him in for softs before Leclerc pitted on lap 25 in a move timed to emerge ahead of his teammate.Hamilton's frustration boiled over on team radio as he urged Ferrari to let him past Leclerc, saying: "I need to use this speed, mate," before Leclerc responded by setting the fastest lap.When Verstappen finally pitted on lap 33, his commanding lead allowed him to rejoin in first place.Lance Stroll's retirement with clutch issues triggered another VSC period that sparked a flurry of pit stops and Russell's timing proved unfortunate as the VSC ended earlier than expected, dropping him to 10th. RADIO ISSUES FOR VERSTAPPENThe strategy chaos benefited Leclerc, who caught and passed Hamilton on lap 46 to claim second place, though he remained nearly 15 seconds behind Verstappen, who faced radio communication problems for the second time this weekend.The issue forced his engineer to resort to coded messages, asking the Dutchman to key his mic to make a sound or stay silent when given options on strategy.The final stint saw Hamilton's pace collapse as multiple drivers closed in sensing a podium.Norris attempted to pass Hamilton on lap 54, but the Ferrari left the track and went wide while the McLaren went on the dirty part of the track, allowing Antonelli to overtake and move up to fourth.Antonelli then passed Hamilton for third before Norris found his opportunity at turn 10.Hamilton's misery was completed when Piastri overtook him on the final lap, relegating the Ferrari driver to sixth place. 

Max Verstappen said Thursday he was determined to settle his "unfinished business" at the Singapore Grand Prix, where he has never won. The Red Bull driver took his first victory of 2026 at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia last weekend, the 72nd time that he has stood on the top step of the podium in a career that has brought him four world titles. But none of those wins have come in Singapore where a bumpy track, slow corners and high humidity seem to favour other cars.The Dutchman would love to break his long losing streak at the Marina Bay Circuit. "I think in the last few years we have always been bad at low speed and over kerbing and bumps," Verstappen told reporters. "This car is probably more competitive at low speed, but we still struggle on bumps and kerbs. We know that and so, of course, I have unfinished business here." He finished second last year behind the Mercedes of George Russell and believes he can go one better and complete back-to-back victories in steamy southeast Asia. "Every year I come back here and I'm trying to win it. I hope we can be a little more competitive this year compared to the last few years."With a sprint race in Singapore this year, it means there is only one Friday practice session for the drivers and teams to get up to speed. "It's always hectic, a sprint weekend, to make the right choices," said Verstappen. "The most important thing is just to find a good balance with the car straight away. That will help a lot for the rest of the weekend." 

George Russell expects to take another engine penalty before the season ends, adding to the Mercedes driver's frustrations as he prepares to start the Singapore Grand Prix from the back of the grid with his title hopes fading fast.Mercedes confirmed that Russell had no engines left in his season's allocation of four and would have to take a new one for the Singapore sprint weekend. Team boss Toto Wolff said the Briton would start Sunday's race from the rear of the field.Russell retired from last weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia with a power unit problem five laps from the finish while running third, leaving him 84 points behind teammate and championship leader Kimi Antonelli."The engine wasn't stretched too long. It was the sixth race of the engine and obviously four engines a year, six races per engine when you split it up," Russell told reporters on Thursday."We actually put that engine in on Sunday in Budapest, so it was actually the sixth race, but minus qualifying and the practice sessions of Budapest. We were waiting to take the engine penalty... but unfortunately, we've had to take it here."But with seven races remaining - that's longer than the engines are designed for, unfortunately - that means I'll be taking another penalty at some point between the next race and the end of the season."So it feels a little bit like one thing after another right now, but that's just how the cookie crumbles." DIFFERENT CAR SPECIFICATIONSMercedes will run different car specifications this weekend, with Antonelli continuing to develop their new package while Russell reverts to the setup that carried him to victory in Baku."Actually I instigated the conversation prior to the race on Sunday," Russell added."So when the failure happened, it was kind of a no-brainer, because we were kind of 50-50 about it pre-race and I was more in favour of doing it. And that was even pre-race, whereas now it is a total no-brainer."So this engine penalty this weekend is just giving a good opportunity to roll back. It's a car that I won in Baku with."Antonelli remains optimistic about the new package even though the results were not evident in Sepang, where he finished second behind Red Bull's Max Verstappen."I think there's an actual improvement. It's just we didn't quite see it in Sepang and I think that's why it was such an outlier," he said."But hopefully this weekend we will be able to understand it more, put the car in a better place and be able to use its full potential."We really want to understand this new package and try to extract the maximum out of it because the team has done a tremendous job. They've put in so much work on this new package and it would be just a shame to write it off so early." 

Max Verstappen's resurgence in Malaysia will be put to the test just 300 kilometres south at the Singapore Grand Prix this weekend, where the Red Bull driver may need to overcome the elements and his own poor record at the Marina Bay Street Circuit. An imperious Verstappen took his first chequered flag of the year at the wide open and fast Sepang Circuit at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia on Sunday. But it was in a race delayed for an hour and a half after a chaotic formation lap saw cars, including Verstappen's, grind to halt because of a software glitch in the settings for running in wet conditions. "It was insane," said Verstappen. "At some points, we were five-wide on the straight because we couldn't understand it... I saw eight cars crawling and Lewis (Hamilton) stopped... It's not what you want for the sport."Rain could again play a part in the tropical city state, with thunderstorms forecast to affect both Saturday's sprint race and qualifying, and Sunday's night grand prix.Verstappen has never won at the twisty Marina Bay Street Circuit, where extremes of heat and humidity play a part in the most physically attritional race of the season on a circuit notoriously difficult for overtaking.Drivers can shed up to three kilogrammes (more than six pounds) during the longest outing on the calendar, where completing the 62 steamy laps often lasts the maximum two hours race time allowed.A floor upgrade coupled with Verstappen finally working out how to get the best from the new generation car led him to call the result at Sepang four days ago "amazing". Runaway championship leader Kimi Antonelli was second in the Mercedes and is likely to be challenging for the chequered flag again. He was the beneficiary of yet more bad luck for his teammate and main title rival George Russell, who was "beyond disappointment" after an agonising power unit failure when running third with five laps to go in Malaysia. "You've almost got to laugh... it's just so many times this season it's happened," said Russell, who has failed to finish three times in 16 grands prix so far in 2026.Lewis Hamilton has won four times in Singapore in the past and was buoyed by a drive at Sepang where he cut through the field to recover to third after starting on unsuitable dry tyres and dropping to the back."To finish on the podium after the way the race began feels really satisfying," said Hamilton. "It is a great reward for the hard work, determination and resilience everyone showed today."Russell won the Singapore Grand Prix a year ago, edging Verstappen and the current world champion Lando Norris of McLaren.dh/lga

Russell wins from pole for MercedesVerstappen second to cut gap to Piastri in title raceMcLarens clash on first corner but win constructors' titleGeorge Russell drove a flawless race from pole position to win the Singapore Grand Prix for Mercedes Sunday, leaving Red Bull's world champion Max Verstappen and the two McLarens to fight it out for the other podium spots.Briton Russell took the chequered flag under the lights of the Marina Bay street circuit 5.4 seconds clear of Verstappen to claim his second victory of the season."It feels amazing," said Russell. "We don't really know where this performance came from, but really, really happy."I was really nervous at the beginning when I saw Max on the soft (tyres), but that first stint was great from us."Lando Norris put pressure on Verstappen towards the end of the race but had to settle for third ahead of teammate Oscar Piastri, the pair earning enough points to seal a second consecutive constructors' title for McLaren."It was a tough race," said Norris. "Max didn't make any mistakes. I gave it my all today, and got close."I'm happy with today. I got forward two positions. We won as a team, the constructors' once again."Piastri's lead over Briton Norris in the drivers' standings was cut to 22 points, while Verstappen is 63 points behind the Australian with six races remaining in the season."I think second was the maximum result today," said Verstappen."I think the whole race was quite difficult, more difficult than I hope for, for a lot of different reasons."The celebrations for the constructors' title in the McLaren garage might be muted, however, with Piastri fuming at the way Norris forced his way past his teammate on the opening corner.Kimi Antonelli was a distant fifth in the other Mercedes with Charles Leclerc finishing sixth ahead of his Ferrari teammate Lewis Hamilton.Hamilton was later docked a five-second penalty for repeatedly leaving the track as he struggled with a braking issue, dropping him to eighth with Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso moving up to seventh.Haas driver Oliver Bearman was ninth and Carlos Sainz, who started at the back of the grid after the Williams cars were disqualified from qualifying, took the final points in 10th.Russell got away to a clean start from pole with Verstappen behind him but Norris, who started fifth, clipped the back of the Dutchman's Red Bull as he forced his way up the inside of Piastri on the first corner.Norris sustained some damage to the front end of his car and Piastri expressed his discontent on the team radio at his teammate's manoeuvre, accusing the Briton of "barging him out of the way". "It's racing, I put it on the inside, I had a small correction, but nothing more than that, it was good racing," Norris said.The stewards gave the incident the all-clear and McLaren said they would look at it after the race with Piastri again railing at what he said was the unfairness of the decision."I thought that in the moment, obviously first lap, tensions are high," said Piastri. "We're obviously encouraged to share our views on what happened, and I did that, and I'm sure we'll discuss it more."Verstappen was the first of the leaders to pit and tore around the track to ensure Norris would not be able to undercut him when the Briton changed his tyres seven laps later.Norris asserted his right as McLaren's lead driver to pit ahead of Piastri, whose discontent with the team would not have been improved by a notably slower stop than his teammate.Verstappen was 3.5 seconds behind Russell at the halfway stage and ended the race clinging on to keep second place from Norris rather than chasing a third straight race win.