2026 Singapore Sprint Review: Max Won, George Lost His Luck and McLaren Lost the Plot

Singapore promised us a short Sprint. Instead, it gave us heavy rain, eight official retirements, Ferrari happiness, Mercedes heartbreak and enough confusion to make those 100 kilometres feel emotionally exhausting.

The start was delayed by around 30 minutes after heavy rain left standing water around the circuit. Everyone started on intermediate tyres, and Marina Bay looked less like a race track and more like a very expensive slip-and-slide.

The rain delay gave us one of the funniest moments of the weekend. George was walking around the pit lane while Kimi was still sitting in his car, so George found a way to speak over Kimi’s team radio. He pretended to be Kimi’s new engineer, confusing him for a few seconds before finally admitting it was George.

George Russell started from the front row after qualifying just 0.120 seconds behind Max Verstappen. He moved into the lead at the start, and for a few beautiful moments I thought George’s luck had finally remembered his address.

Then he clipped the wet white line at the final corner of the opening lap and crashed into the inside barrier.

Singapore said, “Absolutely not.”

Poor George. He has spent so much of this season fighting bad luck that I am beginning to suspect luck has a private group chat without him. He later called it a silly mistake with big consequences, which somehow made me feel even worse.

Max, meanwhile, survived another poor start, inherited the lead and managed the race while everybody else tried to turn Singapore into a demolition derby. He said the start was “horrendous again”, but after George’s crash, Max stayed calm and brought the Red Bull home.

He has now won his first Singapore F1 race, although even Max made it clear that Sunday’s Grand Prix is the victory he really wants. Typical Max. Wins the Sprint and still files a complaint with himself.

Lewis Hamilton deserves enormous credit. Ferrari suddenly found serious pace in the wet, and Lewis climbed from sixth to second. I wanted a proper Max-versus-Lewis battle, and although the rain and incidents edited most of it for us, Lewis still delivered the performance I had been hoping to see.

Charles Leclerc completed Ferrari’s double podium in third. He struggled with the front tyres from the middle of the race onwards, but still held on while the McLarens and Kimi Antonelli closed in behind him. Ferrari looked quick, dramatic and slightly confused, which is basically their traditional operating system.

Kimi finished fourth and extended his championship lead over George to 89 points. His luck continues to arrive with perfect timing, while George’s appears to be permanently stuck in traffic.

Then came the final-lap McLaren disaster.

Lando Norris attacked Oscar Piastri at Turn 5, the two cars touched and spun, and Piastri failed to complete the final lap. He was classified 14th, while Norris continued to finish eighth and rescued one point. McLaren had two cars fighting near the front and somehow turned the final lap into a family argument with carbon-fibre consequences.

The rest of the chaos arrived quickly. Lance Stroll and Sergio Pérez collided at Turn 16, Isack Hadjar retired with an engine-braking problem, Franco Colapinto stopped with a technical issue, and Arvid Lindblad spun behind the Safety Car before rejoining. Later, Alexander Albon, Gabriel Bortoleto and Valtteri Bottas were caught in a three-car collision.

Oliver Bearman quietly finished sixth, which deserves more attention. He even battled past Pierre Gasly during the chaos, while Nico Hülkenberg also moved ahead of the Alpine. Bearman kept his head down while more experienced drivers were collecting problems around them. Sometimes survival is the most impressive performance in the room.

Singapore gave us rain, spray, Safety Cars, Ferrari pace, a Mercedes heartbreak, a McLaren collision and another Max victory.

A Sprint should not leave me this tired.

My A2W rating: 9/10. Marina Bay looked beautiful, behaved terribly and delivered exactly the kind of drama Formula 1 keeps promising.

Max got the trophy. Lewis got the applause. George got another emotional repair bill.

And McLaren? Please have that conversation quietly.
aKi Malik