Singapore Grand Prix result: Max Verstappen wins ahead of Charles Leclerc with Kimi Antonelli third

Hamilton started with medium tires while Verstappen and Leclerc chose softs. Despite his theoretically more durable tires, the Briton stopped on the 18th lap to switch to softs, while Leclerc waited until the 24th lap to swap his softs for mediums.

Leclerc came out of the pits just ahead of Hamilton, who had a faster pace on his softer tires.

Yet Ferrari chose not to order Leclerc to let Hamilton pass to maximize his pace, a decision which was questioned by Hamilton from the car.

A virtual safety car was called on lap 39 and Leclerc and Antonelli, who had been chasing the Ferraris closely from the start from fourth on the grid, took advantage of the opportunity for a cheap pit stop – it takes 10 seconds less to stop under a safety car than under race conditions.

Yet Hamilton, despite his older tires, did not stop, a decision that promoted him to second behind Verstappen.

As Leclerc caught Hamilton, the Briton was told he had to stop again; he pushed back to suggest they try to go all the way, but was told they were six laps short of getting there in terms of tire life.

Leclerc quickly caught Hamilton and passed him on lap 46 and set off after Verstappen, but could not get within 7.3 seconds of the Red Bull.

Hamilton never stopped, but when his tires lost grip he fell back into the clutches of Norris and Antonelli.

An attempted pass by Norris on lap 54 with eight to go saw Hamilton go off track and take the emergency road at the first corner, but in doing so Antonelli took the opportunity to pass the McLaren and then Hamilton later on the same lap.

Norris followed him, and now Hamilton fell back towards the second McLaren of Oscar Piastri, who overtook him on the final lap after a resolute attempt at defense by Hamilton.

It was Hamilton who decided not to stop and he apologized for it on the slowdown lap – but there remain a number of questions about the choices made.

Russell’s fight through the field took him to seventh place as he delayed his pit stop as long as possible.

But after dropping back to 10th behind Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, he overtook Gasly after following him for around 10 laps, but was unable to overtake Hulkenberg, who himself was chasing Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson.

Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar took the final point in 10th after starting from the back.