Welcome to the first FGR weekly digest. Every week you get the race in five to eight minutes: what happened, why it happened, and what it means for the title fight.
| 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren | +40.5s |
| 5 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | +49.6s |
| 6 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | +53.1s |
| 7 | Liam Lawson | Racing Bulls | +81.6s |
| 8 | Nico Hulkenberg | Audi | +83.3s |
| 9 | George Russell | Mercedes | +84.6s |
| 10 | Isack Hadjar | Red Bull | +90.8s |
Retired: Stroll, Colapinto, Bortoleto.
Singapore was the one street circuit Max Verstappen had never won on. He left with the full set: sprint pole, sprint win, Grand Prix pole and Grand Prix win, for the 73rd victory of his career and his second straight Sunday on the top step.
The race was decided at Turn 1. Verstappen squeezed Charles Leclerc toward the inside on the run down, which gave the Red Bull the wider line into the corner and the lead. From there he managed the gap. Leclerc closed in the final stint on soft tires against Verstappen's mediums but never got close enough to attack, finishing 7.3 seconds back.
Saturday's sprint, the first ever held at Marina Bay and the last of the season, was a rain-delayed scramble. George Russell jumped Verstappen at the start and then crashed out at the final corner on the damp track before the first lap was done. Lewis Hamilton and Leclerc completed the sprint podium, and the two McLarens tangled on the final lap.
Russell took a power unit penalty and started 19th. He recovered to ninth, but Kimi Antonelli's podium stretched the gap between the teammates to 102 points. A sprint crash and a back-row start in the same weekend is the kind of bad luck that ends a title challenge with six rounds left.
Second in the sprint and running third in the Grand Prix, Hamilton lost three places late after a strategy call that didn't work. He apologized to the team over the radio, and Oscar Piastri passed him in the closing laps. He still holds third in the championship, but only by eight points.
Two Verstappen wins in a row and a recovery drive from Isack Hadjar, who started from the pit lane and took the final point, leave Red Bull seven points behind McLaren in the fight for third in the constructors' table. McLaren's own weekend included a sprint collision between its drivers.
Six rounds remain with 150 points on the table. After Austin, five races and 125 points will be left, so Antonelli clinches next Sunday if he leaves Texas at least 126 points ahead of everyone. In practice that means outscoring Russell by 24 points. A win with Russell 10th or lower would do it. At 20, he would be the youngest champion in the sport's history.
| Pos | Driver | Pts |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Antonelli | 340 |
| 2 | Russell | 238 |
| 3 | Hamilton | 229 |
| 4 | Verstappen | 221 |
| 5 | Leclerc | 215 |
| 6 | Norris | 201 |
| Pos | Team | Pts |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mercedes | 578 |
| 2 | Ferrari | 444 |
| 3 | McLaren | 339 |
| 4 | Red Bull | 332 |
| 5 | Racing Bulls | 100 |
Verstappen's busy off week. With no Grand Prix this weekend, he is racing a GT3 car at Portimão in his GT World Challenge Europe debut, starting 14th.
Ferrari promotes from F2. Dino Beganovic has been named a Ferrari F1 reserve driver.
The video breakdown is up now on YouTube @FullGridReview and TikTok @fullgridreview. The Austin recap lands the Monday after the race.