2026 Singapore Grand Prix · Marina Bay · Round 17 · 62 laps
Verstappen's one-stop Singapore win, all 62 laps led
Max Verstappen stopped once and was never passed. Charles Leclerc and Kimi Antonelli stopped twice, ran faster at the end, and ran out of laps.
Red Bull · 1 stop
Ferrari · 2 stops
Mercedes · 2 stopsThe race was decided by two calls. Verstappen ran his soft tyres to lap 32, so Leclerc's early stop won back only part of the gap. Then, when the race was neutralised on laps 39 and 40, Verstappen stayed out on mediums while Ferrari and Mercedes took fresh softs. The new tyres were quicker; the stop cost more than they could recover in 22 laps.
Laps 1–7
Did Leclerc ever get close enough to attack?
Verstappen led the first lap from Leclerc, with Antonelli fourth. The grid order isn't in our timing data, so we can't say who gained or lost at the start.
For four laps Leclerc was close. He was within a second of the Red Bull from lap 2 to lap 5, and closest on lap 5, when his 1:37.741 was the quickest of the three and cut the gap to about six tenths.
Leclerc spent laps 2–5 inside a second, then drifted out of range
Gap at the line from summed lap times. Dashed line: one second. Source: VizF1 race timing (OpenF1).
Behind them Lando Norris spent laps 2 to 7 within a second of Antonelli, closest at half a second on lap 2.
Gabriel Bortoleto's Audi was the race's first retirement, on lap 7.
Laps 8–22
Why did nobody stop under the first neutralisation?
The race was neutralised on laps 8 and 9, after only seven racing laps on the soft tyres everyone at the front had started on. Verstappen, Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton, Antonelli, Norris and Oscar Piastri all stayed out, and all six were in the same order on lap 11.
The restart is where Verstappen's race started to separate. Leclerc was 0.95 seconds behind after lap 10. Verstappen then lapped in the 1:37.2s to 1:37.7s, Leclerc in the 1:37.5s to 1:38.3s, and by lap 22 the gap was 7.3 seconds.
After the restart Verstappen gained on Leclerc on all 13 laps
Gap at the line from summed lap times; shaded: neutralised laps 8–9. Source: VizF1 race timing (OpenF1).
Antonelli's fight was behind him: Norris was within a second from lap 13 to lap 18, closest at 0.3 seconds on lap 17, when Antonelli's lap was a slow 1:39.124. On lap 18 Antonelli was third.
Laps 23–33
How much did the undercut give Leclerc?
Antonelli stopped first, on lap 23, and Leclerc a lap later. Both went from softs to mediums. Verstappen stayed out on his softs for another eight laps.
Leclerc was 8.4 seconds behind before he stopped. On new mediums he was quicker than Verstappen on every lap from 26 to 31, by between three tenths and 1.4 seconds: 1:36.890 against 1:37.927 on lap 27.
New mediums against old softs: Leclerc was quicker on every lap from 26 to 31
Lap times, laps 26–31 (Verstappen's lap 32 was his in-lap). Source: VizF1 race timing (OpenF1).
Verstappen's softs did fade at the end: lap 31 took him 1:39.907, his slowest racing lap. He pitted at the end of lap 32, through the pit lane in 23.6 seconds, a second quicker than Leclerc's 24.6.
He rejoined in the lead. After lap 33 Leclerc was second again, 4.7 seconds behind.
The undercut was worth about 3.7 seconds. It halved the gap; it did not close it.
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Laps 38–42
Who stopped under the second neutralisation, and what did it cost?
The race was neutralised again on laps 39 and 40. This time the front of the field split. Leclerc and Antonelli came in for soft tyres; Verstappen, Hamilton, Norris and Piastri stayed out.
| Driver | Lap 38 | Call | Lap 42 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Verstappen | P1 | Stayed out | P1 |
| Leclerc | P2 | Pitted, softs | P3 ▼1 |
| Hamilton | P3 | Stayed out | P2 ▲1 |
| Antonelli | P4 | Pitted, softs | P5 ▼1 |
 Norris | P5 | Stayed out | P4 ▲1 |
| Piastri | P6 | Stayed out | P6 |
Positions at the end of laps 38 and 42. Source: VizF1 race timing (OpenF1).
Leclerc's stop took 24.1 seconds in the pit lane and Antonelli's 23.5. Both rejoined one place lower, Leclerc behind his own team-mate.
Across the two neutralised laps Leclerc lost about 12.3 seconds to Verstappen. That is the price he had 22 laps of fresh softs to pay back.
Laps 41–62
Were the fresh softs fast enough to catch Verstappen?
They were fast. On the restart lap, lap 41, Leclerc did 1:35.202, the fastest lap of the race and 1.7 seconds quicker than Verstappen's 1:36.910. His quickest lap away from the restart was a 1:35.585 on lap 49.
On lap 46 he got back past Hamilton for second. The pass cost him that lap: a 1:37.131, his slowest lap between the restart and lap 56.
Leclerc took back 10.6 of the 18 seconds, and ran out of laps
Gap at the line from summed lap times. Source: VizF1 race timing (OpenF1).
Between laps 47 and 54 Leclerc took between three tenths and 2.3 seconds a lap out of Verstappen. Then the gain stopped. From lap 55 the gap moved between 7.3 and 9.8 seconds, and Leclerc's softs began to slow: 1:37.573 on lap 57, against 1:35.585 eight laps earlier.
Twenty-two laps of new softs bought back ten seconds. The stop had cost twelve.
Laps 53–62
How did Antonelli get from fifth to the podium?
Antonelli came out of his second stop fifth, behind Hamilton and Norris, who had both stayed out. On lap 54 he passed Norris for third. Laps 53 and 54 were his slowest racing laps of the final stint, 1:38.366 and 1:39.154, as he fought his way past.
Antonelli's race: fourth, sixth, fifth, and third at the end
Position at the end of each lap; shaded: neutralised laps. Source: VizF1 race timing (OpenF1).
A lap later Norris got past Hamilton for fourth. Hamilton, second after the restart on tyres he had not changed at the neutralisation, kept losing places.
On lap 61 Piastri took fifth from him too. Hamilton finished sixth, four places lower than he ran on lap 42.
Over the last eight laps Antonelli was the quickest of the three on six of them: 1:35.986 on lap 60, against Leclerc's 1:36.628 and Verstappen's 1:37.235. He finished about 24.6 seconds behind the winner.
Laps 33–62
How did one set of mediums last 30 laps?
Verstappen's medium tyres went on at the end of lap 32 and came off at the flag. From lap 42 to lap 49 he lapped between 1:36.201, his best lap of the race on lap 44, and 1:36.815. Over the last three laps he slowed to 1:37.235, 1:37.394 and 1:37.840.
Verstappen's last lap on his mediums was 1.6 seconds slower than his best
Lap times; neutralised laps 39–40 left out. Source: VizF1 race timing (OpenF1).
Across the whole race, his clean-lap pace was all but level with Leclerc's. His car carried 12 km/h less through the speed trap than Leclerc's, and he averaged less throttle. That is what the car did; the timing doesn't say why.
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Further back, Alexander Albon's Williams stopped on lap 59, after Franco Colapinto on lap 29 and Lance Stroll on lap 36. Nineteen cars were classified.
Lap 62 · Result
What does the win change in the championship?
Verstappen won from Leclerc and Antonelli in a dry race, track temperature 41–44°C. Norris and Piastri took fourth and fifth for McLaren.
| Pos | Driver | Pts |
|---|
Classification and points. Source: VizF1 race timing (OpenF1). Stops shown for the focus drivers only.
The win moves Verstappen to 221 points and fourth in the drivers' championship, up from sixth before Singapore and six points ahead of Leclerc. Antonelli's third keeps him well clear at the top: 340 points, 102 ahead of his team-mate George Russell, who finished ninth.
Antonelli has led since round 3; Verstappen has overtaken Leclerc for the first time this season
Points after each round, computed by VizF1 from 2026 race and sprint results. Source.
- Antonelli, 340. Russell 238, Hamilton 229, Verstappen 221, Leclerc 215 after round 17.
- Verstappen, fourth. His highest place in the standings this season; he had been sixth or lower after every round before this one.
- Constructors: Mercedes 578, Ferrari 444, McLaren 337, Red Bull Racing 329.
More from the weekend: Verstappen's Singapore sprint win from pole and the one-stop advantage, in numbers. The round before: how Verstappen won Bahrain on the long run. All stories: VizF1 editorial.
Sources & method
- Race page: 2026 Singapore Grand Prix on VizF1.
- Timing data: FastF1 (F1 live timing) and OpenF1, for laps, stints, pit-lane times, speed traps, throttle, weather and classification. This race's timing came from OpenF1.
- Gaps between drivers are computed from summed lap times, so they are gaps at the line and can differ slightly from official intervals. The official winning margin is not in our data.
- Clean-lap pace leaves out the opening lap, in- and out-laps, neutralised laps and the restart lap after each. The timing feed does not separate a safety car from a virtual safety car, so this story calls both "the neutralisation".
- Grid positions were missing from the timing data, so the story makes no claims about places gained at the start.
- Championship standings are computed by VizF1 from the 2026 race and sprint results for rounds 1–17; they match the official Ergast/Jolpica snapshot for the top five.
- Photos: chensiyuan (hero) and Dietmar Rabich (pit building, kerb), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. Driver headshots and team marks from the VizF1 race context.