Every Singapore Grand Prix winner, measured: 16 races at night, 11 won from pole
Sixteen Formula 1 races have been held in Singapore since 2008. Eleven were won from pole, Sebastian Vettel won five, and a safety car came out in every race until 2024. The last two have had none. Every winner, grid slot and safety car, measured.
In its first fourteen races, from 2008 to 2023, the Singapore Grand Prix had a safety car every time. Then in 2024, and again in 2025, it had none.
Sixteen Formula 1 races have been held on the Marina Bay Street Circuit since the first night race in 2008. It is a circuit where qualifying decides a lot: eleven of the sixteen were won from pole, and the last three in a row. Sebastian Vettel won five times, more than anyone. The seventeenth race is on Sunday 11 October 2026, after Singapore's first sprint.
Every radio message from the recent races is in our
11 of 16 races won from pole, including the last three: Sainz, Norris and Russell.
Most wins: Vettel 5 (2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2019), Hamilton 4 (2009, 2014, 2017, 2018), Alonso 2.
Lowest winning grid slot: 15th, Alonso in 2008. Hamilton won from fifth in 2017.
Charles Leclerc: pole in 2019 and 2022, second both times.
A safety car in every race from 2008 to 2023. The 2024 and 2025 races had no safety car and no virtual safety car.
Fewest finishers: 12 in 2017, when a first-lap crash took out both Ferraris and Max Verstappen.
Every car finished in 2025, all twenty classified.
The safety cars
Race control messages exist from 2018, so this is the recent run, measured:
Year
Safety cars
Virtual safety cars
2018
1
0
2019
3
0
2022
2
3
2023
1
1
2024
0
0
2025
0
0
Deployments counted from race control messages.
The run ended soon after a layout change. For 2023 the circuit dropped the slow section under the grandstand at turns 16 to 19 and replaced it with a straight, which removed one of the tightest, most wall-lined sequences on the lap. The race is still long, hot and humid, usually close to the two-hour limit, but the last two editions ran clean.
2008: the race that was fixed
The first Singapore Grand Prix is also its most notorious. Alonso started fifteenth, pitted early, and was perfectly placed when his team mate Nelson Piquet Jr crashed on lap 14 and brought out the safety car. A year later it emerged that Renault had told Piquet to crash on purpose. The team was given a suspended ban, and its team principal Flavio Briatore and engineering director Pat Symonds left the sport, Briatore under a ban later overturned in court. Alonso's win stands.
2023: the Norris shield
Carlos Sainz won from pole in 2023, the only race of that season not won by Red Bull. With Mercedes charging on fresher tyres behind, he deliberately let Lando Norris stay close enough to use DRS, so that Norris could defend against George Russell. His engineer kept him updated on the gaps:
"Lando 0.8 behind, 0.8 with DRS, Russell no DRS". It worked. Russell crashed on the last lap, and Sainz won:
"Ricky! We won Singapore, my friend!"
2025: Russell from pole, McLaren's title
George Russell led from pole to the flag in 2025, the first Mercedes win in Singapore since 2018. Behind him, Lando Norris finished third, and his message on the slow-down lap was about more than his race: McLaren had just won the constructors' championship.
"And we are the World Constructors' Championship. We did it. We won. Two years running."
Winners, grid positions, poles and finishers come from Formula 1's official timing data via FastF1.
Safety cars and virtual safety cars are counted from race control messages for 2018 onward. The safety car in every race from 2008 to 2023 is as reported by Formula 1 and others; race control data for those years is not available to us.
Quotes are taken only from lines where the speaker label and the words agree.
Frequently asked questions
Who has won the most Singapore Grands Prix?
Sebastian Vettel, with five: 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2019. Lewis Hamilton has four.
Who won the 2025 Singapore Grand Prix?
George Russell, from pole, for Mercedes. Max Verstappen was second and Lando Norris third.
Is there always a safety car in Singapore?
There was in every race from 2008 to 2023. The 2024 and 2025 races had no safety car and no virtual safety car.
Why was the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix controversial?
Renault told Nelson Piquet Jr to crash on purpose to bring out a safety car that helped his team mate Fernando Alonso win. It became known as Crashgate.
Sources
Winners, grid positions, poles, finishers and race control messages from 2018: Formula 1 timing data via FastF1
Every radio message quoted: our own team radio archive
Follow Singapore live
A night race where a single safety car can reshape the podium is the one to follow on the radio.
The Formula Dream app plays live driver radio as it is broadcast, transcript beside the audio, and collects every FIA document of the weekend as it is published. There is also a live timing Dashboard, currently in beta, with flag and safety car alerts.
Free, no subscription, no ads, independent. Not affiliated with Formula 1.
Nineteen Chinese Grands Prix have been held in Shanghai since 2004. Lewis Hamilton won six, pole won twelve, and in 2026 Kimi Antonelli took the first win of his career there, at 19, with Hamilton on the podium for Ferrari for the first time. Every winner, grid slot and safety car, measured.
Lando NorrisMcLaren · Singapore Grand Prix 2025 · Race · 21:45:25 local
DriverWell done, mate. First P3. We chip away at him. And we are the World Constructors' Championship. We did it. We won. Two years running. Well
Engineerdone, mate.
DriverI'm pretty tired, man. I didn't drink. I couldn't. I felt too bad. But who cares? We all won another World Championship for McLaren. Congratulations, everyone. You all worked so hard. I'm so proud to be part of it all. Beautiful. Simply beautiful. Well done, everyone. Very well deserved. Incredible.
