Russell dominates as McLaren drivers clash - Singapore GP results

George Russell took a commanding win in the Singapore Grand Prix as championship contenders Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris made contact at the start.

Russell dominated the race from pole position and, although Max Verstappen looked like a threat in some stages, the Mercedes driver was never really challenged in a race that was rather processional until the final laps.

It was Russell’s and Mercedes’ second win of the season after their victory in Canada.

Verstappen, the only driver in the top eight to start on soft tyres, managed to retain second place despite late pressure from Lando Norris, who completed the podium.

The result allowed McLaren to secure its 10th constructors’ title, and the second in a row.

The British team, however, was involved in a controversy after Norris and Piastri made contact when the Briton dove down the inside of Turn 3 at the start.

Norris made the move stick, but Piastri was less than happy with it and he made it clear all throughout the race, saying that it wasn’t “fair”.

Piastri finished in fourth and saw his championship lead over Norris cut to 22 points.

Kimi Antonelli rounded out the top five ahead of Charles Leclerc, who emerged as Ferrari‘s lead driver after Lewis Hamilton suffered brake problems, having overtaken Antonelli for fifth earlier on.

Hamilton still managed to finish seventh ahead of Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), but was later penalised for leaving the track without a justifiable reason and dropped to eighth behind the Spaniard.

Oliver Bearman (Haas) was ninth, and Carlos Sainz, who recovered from his qualifying disqualification, scored the final point.

Story of the race

The entire field started on slick tyres despite some wet areas on the track as a result of rain around an hour before the start.

Russell, starting on new mediums, kept the soft-shod Verstappen at bay into Turn 1 to keep the lead from pole as Norris made a good start and managed to overtake Piastri with an aggressive move, going side-by-side into Turn 2 and then making contact with his team-mate at Turn 3.

“Yeah, I mean, that wasn’t very team-like, but sure,” complained Piastri on the radio before adding later: “So are we cool with Lando just barging me out of the way or what’s the go here?”

“Control the controllable, mate,” Piastri was told in reply. “No further action from the stewards, as a team we can see Lando has to avoid Verstappen so we won’t take any action during the race, we can review further afterwards.”

Piastri replied: “Mate, that’s not fair. I’m sorry, that’s not fair.”

In the process of overtaking Piastri, Norris also made contact with Verstappen’s car in front, slightly damaging the left side of his front wing.

The race quickly set into a procession after the initial first-lap drama as Russell comfortably opened a gap of nearly five seconds over Verstappen by lap 10, with Norris around two seconds behind the Dutchman.

Norris appeared to have more pace than Verstappen, and told his team it would be “easy” to undercut the Red Bull when they pitted.

McLaren tried to trick Red Bull into an early pitstop by bringing its pit crew out on lap 18 to “overtake Verstappen”, but the world champion didn’t bite.

Verstappen eventually pitted on lap 20, switching from soft to hard tyres and returning in seventh position as Norris stayed out to attempt an overcut.

Russell made his pitstop from the lead on lap 26 when he had a nine-second gap over Norris. The McLaren driver stopped a lap later after being asked by his team if he would be willing to allow Piastri to pit before him to cover Leclerc, the Briton replying, “No, I wouldn’t”.

Piastri made his stop a lap later, but a problem with the front left wheel meant the Australian lost around four seconds, rejoining the track nearly 10 seconds behind Norris, still third behind Russell and Verstappen.

Verstappen had managed to reduce the gap to Russell, but a big lock-up on lap 37 cost him a couple of seconds as the Dutch star complained that his car was very difficult to drive.

Verstappen struggled to overtake lapped traffic and had Norris right behind him by lap 46, but the Briton was unable to find a way pass the Red Bull, something that benefitted Piastri, who managed to close in on his team-mate.

The order, however, remained unchanged as overtaking proved impossible for both McLarens.

2025 Singapore GP results