Singapore Grand Prix preview: can Verstappen make it two in a row under the lights?
Verstappen is on Sprint pole, Russell starts Sunday from the back and Antonelli is 84 points clear. Everything to watch at Marina Bay this weekend.
Six days after winning at Sepang, Max Verstappen is on pole again. He took Sprint pole in Singapore on Friday night, and now the question is simple: can he make it two in a row?
The big question
Verstappen’s Sepang win was his first of 2026, and Red Bull has carried that form to Singapore. He took Sprint pole with a 1:31.156, 0.120 seconds clear of George Russell, and kept it after the stewards cleared him over a yellow-flag incident in the first part of the session.
Back-to-back wins would not change the title picture much. But after a year spent chasing Mercedes, they would put Red Bull firmly back in the fight for race wins.
The title fight
Kimi Antonelli leads the championship by 84 points, with 183 left to play for. That gap grew at Sepang, where Russell’s engine failed while he was running third.
Singapore could stretch it further. Russell is taking his fifth power unit of the season, one more than the rules allow, so he will start Sunday’s Grand Prix from the back of the grid. He qualified second for the Sprint, so Saturday looks like his best chance to claw back points.
Form guide
- Max Verstappen: Sprint pole and a Sepang win behind him. The man to beat.
- George Russell: fastest in the only practice session and second in Sprint Qualifying, running Mercedes’ older car specification. Strong pace, but a long way to come on Sunday.
- Kimi Antonelli: only seventh in Sprint Qualifying, more than half a second slower than Russell in the newer, upgraded Mercedes. Mercedes expected that upgrade to find around 0.3 seconds a lap, but Toto Wolff felt it set them back by a similar amount.
- Ferrari: Charles Leclerc third and Lewis Hamilton sixth in Sprint Qualifying. A podium threat if Red Bull and Mercedes stumble.
- McLaren: Oscar Piastri fourth and Lando Norris fifth. In the mix, but not yet quick enough to win.
Track notes
- The final Sprint of 2026. Saturday’s Sprint starts in daylight at 17:00. Sunday’s Grand Prix runs at night under floodlights, so the track will behave differently.
- Heat. Even at night, Marina Bay is one of the hardest races on the calendar for drivers, with long laps in high humidity.
- Rain watch. The forecast gives a 40% chance of rain on both Saturday and Sunday. If it comes, the FIA will bring back the wet-weather settings it rewrote at Sepang. We explain what went wrong there in our piece on F1’s software problem.
Weekend schedule
| Session | Day | Local time | GMT |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sprint (21 laps) | Saturday 10 October | 17:00 | 09:00 |
| Qualifying | Saturday 10 October | 21:00 | 13:00 |
| Grand Prix (62 laps) | Sunday 11 October | 20:00 | 12:00 |
Our take
Antonelli doesn’t need to win in Singapore. With Russell at the back on Sunday, staying out of the wall and finishing ahead of him is a good night’s work.
