This past weekend, October 3rd-5th, was the 17th round of the F1 calendar: the 2025 Singapore Grand Prix. Singapore was the first-ever Formula 1 night race, and still remains the most well-known night race on the calendar. This circuit is considered by most to be the hardest race of the season, having both tight corners and incredibly hot conditions for the drivers.

Practice Sessions

The weekend started with three practice sessions between Friday and Saturday. The practice sessions were disrupted by multiple incidents, first with two red flags from crashes by George Russell and Liam Lawson in FP2 and then FP3 being ended early by Lawson crashing his car once again.

Qualifying

However, Russell pulled it together and set a new lap time record during qualifying: 1:29.158. This replaced Daniel Riccardo’s record which he set at his last Formula 1 race before retiring. Russell’s incredible performance in qualifying earned him pole position for the race on Sunday, followed by Max Verstappen and then Oscar Piastri.

Race

At some point in his racing career, Verstappen has won at every single track on this year’s calendar except for Singapore. He went into this weekend ready to be aggressive and competitive, knowing he needed to rack up some points to stay in the competition for the Driver’s Championship. While the drivers in the top 7 positions started with medium tires, Red Bull chose a different strategy and had Verstappen start with soft. Verstappen’s goal was to pass Russell at turn 1, but he was unsuccessful. Nevertheless, much action happened at the start.

Turn 1

Lando Norris started in 5th, but was incredibly aggressive in gaining positions. At turn 1, Norris hit both Piastri and Verstappen in an attempt to pass them. These contacts messed up his front wing, but he did not pit to replace it as the damage was minimal. Norris was successful in his attempts to gain positions, making his way up to 3rd. However, his teammate Piastri felt he was playing dirty and that he wasn’t acting like a teammate. Piastri expressed his distaste in many radio calls to McLaren, saying how “That’s not fair. If he has to avoid another car by crashing into his teammate then that is a pretty **** job of avoiding it.” He then asks McLaren if Norris is going to give the position back. In the end, McLaren decided that they would continue racing and that the incident was minimal, further angering Piastri. Once again, Piastri and Norris face “Papaya Rules” which have been controversial. Many fans feel that McLaren favors Norris over Piastri and that the McLaren team has been purposefully making calls to help Norris.

Throughout the Race

Kimi Antonelli, the 19 year old rookie driver for Mercedes, unfortunately suffered from some car problems. His steering wheel alignment was off, so he needed to overcompensate steering in order to drive in a straight line. Despite this issue, he had a successful race, finishing in 5th.

A large gap of 49.3 seconds between the top 7 and positions 8-20 formed in this race at lap 54, leading to practically two races forming. Many blue flags occurred so cars could get out of the way when the leaders were going to lap them.

Pit Stops

Norris was asked by McLaren to let Piastri pit first, but he told them no. This ended up being a good decision on Norris’ part as in lap 28, Piastri had a bad pitstop of 5.2 seconds. 

The worst pitstop of the night was Fernando Alonso’s; it ended up being 9.2 seconds.

Interestingly, Lance Stroll went over 35 laps on the soft tyres before pitting despite the expected lifetime of the tires to be around 20 laps.

Radio Message Highlights

Race Engineer- “34 to go.”

Alonso- “If you speak to me every lap I will disconnect the radio.”(Following his overtake of Isack Hadjar)

Alonso- “Trophy for the hero of the race!”

Finish

George Russel led every lap in this race, thus achieving his second win of the season. McLaren also secured the 2025 Constructor’s Champion following this race for the second year running. The Constructors’ Championship is the team award and accounts for both drivers, while the Driver’s Championship regards only an individual driver.

Summary

Podium:

1st Place- George Russell

2nd Place- Max Verstappen

3rd Place- Lando Norris

2025 Constructors’ Champion- McLaren

Driver of the Day- Fernando Alonso (10th → 8th)

Fastest Lap of the Day- Lewis Hamilton

Final Standing

Note- Hamilton will be investigated for exceeding track limits following the race

What is to Come

With 6 more races yet to come this season, there is still plenty of time for the Driver’s Championship to change. While Oscar Piastri is currently in the lead, Norris follows closely behind with Verstappen working his way up.