SINGAPORE (AP) — Max Verstappen won the sprint race and followed up with pole position at the Singapore Grand Prix on Saturday.
Verstappen qualified on pole by 0.054 of a second ahead of Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, with Lewis Hamilton third and Formula 1 standings leader Kimi Antonelli fourth.
Besides Verstappen, the day's other big winner was Antonelli, who widened his lead over George Russell when his Mercedes teammate crashed out from the lead in the sprint.
In a chaotic race which also saw Lando Norris collide with his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri, Russell beat Verstappen off the line at the start in wet conditions but lost control when he put a wheel on a painted line at the end of the first lap, spinning across the track and into the barrier.
The British driver tapped his hands against the car in frustration as he climbed out.
“I'm fine. Sorry, sorry, sorry,” he told Mercedes over the radio.
Verstappen eased to the win after that, backing up his victory in Malaysia last week, with Ferrari duo Hamilton and Leclerc second and third.
Antonelli was fourth, extending his lead over Russell from 84 points to 89, after he picked up two positions on the last lap when Norris and Piastri collided ahead of him.
Norris tried an ambitious overtake down the inside of his teammate but badly misjudged it and sent the Australian spinning into the barrier. McLaren chief executive Zak Brown shook his head in dismay on the pit wall.
Russell has a grid penalty for Sunday's Grand Prix, meaning the 20-year-old Antonelli could take another big step toward becoming F1's youngest-ever champion.
Russell wasn’t the only driver to be caught out in the wet conditions. He was one of eight non-finishers after a spate of collisions and technical problems, with Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar stopped by car trouble.
Verstappen said Red Bull will need to work on its “horrendous” starts after he lost the sprint lead off the line, just as he did in Malaysia last week.
“We don't accelerate off the line,” he said. “Up until now we always have terrible starts so we need to understand what's going on there.”
Liam Lawson was fifth for Racing Bulls, with Haas’ Oliver Bearman sixth and Nico Hülkenberg seventh for Audi. Norris recovered to claim a point in eighth in the last sprint of 2026.
The start was delayed because of heavy rain, making it the second week running that an F1 race has started late. Last week's Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia was first held up by a downpour, then because several cars' software failed to cope with the wet conditions.
The FIA issued a software update which was also being used in Singapore this week.
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