Singapore Sprint 2026 Results: Verstappen Wins | Formula Dream
Singapore Sprint 2026 Results: Russell Crashes From the Lead
Russell took the lead at turn one and crashed at the final corner of the same lap. Verstappen won, Hamilton charged to second, and the McLarens hit each other.
George Russell passed Max Verstappen into turn one of the Singapore sprint and was out of it before the lap was over. That one corner cost him five more points to Kimi Antonelli, on a weekend he could not afford it.
Verstappen won the 20 lap sprint at Marina Bay by 2.591 seconds from Lewis Hamilton, with Charles Leclerc third and Antonelli fourth. It was the last sprint of 2026, held on intermediates after a downpour delayed the start by around half an hour, and only 14 of the 22 cars were classified.
Standing water at turns two and three was the worry before the start. The field went out behind the safety car for formation laps and then took a standing start, everyone on intermediates.
"The spray is very bad," Oscar Piastri reported before the start.
Carlos Sainz started from the pit lane after Williams changed his suspension under parc ferme conditions.
Russell: first at turn one, out at the last corner
Russell made the cleaner start from second and took the lead into turn one. Hamilton jumped from sixth to third on the same lap. Then, at the final corner of the opening lap, Russell lost control on the wet surface, slid across the track and hit the wall.
"ah, yeah, I'm fine," he told his engineer.
Lance Stroll and Sergio Perez had collided under braking for turn 16 on the same lap, ending Stroll's sprint, and Isack Hadjar and Franco Colapinto stopped within the first two laps.
Hadjar's car went first: "the engine braking is dying," he said, and the reply from the pit wall was immediate: "stop the car, stop the car".
The safety car stayed out until the end of lap six. At the restart Gabriel Bortoleto, Alexander Albon and Valtteri Bottas were caught up in a three car collision that put Bortoleto and Bottas out.
Verstappen in control, Hamilton the charge
From the restart Verstappen led every lap. Hamilton held second from sixth on the grid and was 1.3 seconds behind at half distance, and finished 2.591 seconds back. Nobody stopped for slicks, even as the track dried.
Leclerc, third, was complaining that his front tyres were finished, and the McLarens were closing on him when they ran into each other.
The McLarens collide
Lando Norris tried to pass Piastri into turn five. They touched, Piastri spun into the wall, and the stewards looked at it and took no action. Piastri was classified 14th, a lap down. Norris finished eighth and took the last point.
"Yeah, sorry about that. Obviously I didn't want that to happen, but I thought I was fully alongside. I just ran out of space at the apex, but I was there."
Further back, Oliver Bearman went from 13th on the grid to sixth for Haas, and afterwards he admitted he had not believed the morning's talk of a miracle.
"Francesco, when you were speaking about a miracle this morning, I... I wasn't believing you."
2026 Singapore sprint result
Gaps from the official sprint classification.
Pos
Driver
Team
Grid
Gap
Points
1
MaxVerstappen
Red BullRBR
1
39:48.162
8
2
LewisHamilton
FerrariFER
6
+2.591
7
3
CharlesLeclerc
FerrariFER
3
+16.871
6
4
KimiAntonelli
MercedesMER
7
+17.238
5
5
LiamLawson
Racing BullsRB
8
+20.632
4
6
OliverBearman
HaasHAA
13
+24.321
Pierre Gasly, Esteban Ocon, Fernando Alonso, Sainz and Arvid Lindblad completed the 20 laps without scoring, and Piastri was classified 14th. Russell, Perez, Stroll, Hadjar, Colapinto, Bortoleto, Bottas and Albon did not finish.
What it did to the championship
Antonelli's three places gained were worth five points, and Russell's crash meant he scored none. The gap between the two Mercedes drivers went from 84 points to 89 before the Grand Prix had even started.
It got worse for Russell on Sunday: he started the race 19th after an engine penalty and finished ninth, while Verstappen completed a sprint, pole and Grand Prix weekend. That race is in our Singapore GP results, and the table after both is on the 2026 F1 standings page.
Singapore's was the sixth and last sprint of the year, so the remaining six rounds are all standard weekends.
The radio is the part the timing screen misses
The classification shows Russell as a lap one retirement. It does not show the turn one move that put him in the lead a few hundred metres earlier, or Bearman struggling to believe his own sixth place.
Every message from the sprint, both sides of each conversation, with the transcript colouring itself by who is speaking, is on the Singapore sprint radio page.
Want the radio live, as it happens? The Formula Dream app plays driver radio during the session with the transcript running beside the audio, alongside live timing, every FIA document as it is published, and the full weekend timeline. Download Formula Dream for iOS and Android.
US GP 2026 Preview: Antonelli Can Win the Title in Austin
Kimi Antonelli arrives in Austin 102 points clear with six races left. Win, and have Russell and Hamilton finish low enough, and he is champion on Sunday.
Lando NorrisMcLaren · Singapore Grand Prix 2026 · Sprint · 18:18:51 local
DriverYeah, sorry about that. Obviously I didn't want that to happen, but I thought I was fully alongside. I just ran out of space at the apex, but I was there.
