Singapore Grand Prix: Max Verstappen roars to Singapore win as Oscar Piastri bags fifth

Oscar Piastri has battled to a hard-fought fifth place at the Singapore Grand Prix, helping his McLaren team salvage some pride and useful championship points from an otherwise frustrating weekend at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.

Australian star Piastri finished one place behind team-mate Lando Norris, just outside the podium spots, but the day after both McLaren drivers received a public dressing down from team chiefs for a collision between them on the final lap of Saturday’s Sprint race, the Grand Prix result can be judged a positive outcome.

The weekend, however, really belonged to Red Bull flyer Max Verstappen, who roared home to victory on his 250th Grand Prix start, capping a remarkable 24 hours in which the four-time world champ also banked two pole positions and a classy victory in the Sprint race.

Starting from his 50th career pole place, it was the Dutchman’s second straight victory after winning the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia last weekend, and leaves him fourth in the championship standings.

Verstappen’s triumph means Red Bull are now seven points behind constructors’ champions McLaren in the battle for third place.

“It’s taken a while but I think this race was very good. We had pace when we needed to have it on the soft tyre, even though I think the medium tyre for everyone was more of a struggle,” Verstappen said.

“But it worked out, so of course very happy to win here... The last two races have been really positive for us and it’s just great to see.”

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finished second while Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli was third, extending his championship lead over teammate George Russell to 102 points and knowing he can mathematically win his maiden title in the next round in Austin, Texas from 23-25 October.

“Can I? Really?”, 20-year-old Italian Antonelli said when he was told after his 14th podium of the season.

“Well, let’s not worry about that. Let’s try to do the best weekend as possible and finish the job.”

Meanwhile, once Norris knew he had lost out to Antonelli when battling Lewis Hamilton for the final podium slot, McLaren’s reigning world champion offered to ease up and help teammate Piastri as the race reached its climax.

But 25-year-old Melburnian Piastri, despite suffering bad luck when forced to pit a second time thanks to a slow puncture, still had the composure to do it his own way, overtaking seven-time champion Hamilton on the final lap.

“The puncture was a shame, but I think fifth place was the maximum we could have done today,” Piastri said.

“We didn’t quite have the pace to challenge the Red Bull and the Ferraris, although being able to get that final position from Lewis made it worthwhile. It was a reasonable chunk of points for the team.”

Veteran Briton Hamilton endured a frustrating end to the race in his Ferrari, the 41-year-old struggling with worn tyres as Norris also went past him.

Hamilton, who missed his post-race media duties after feeling unwell, earlier admitted it had been his choice to stay on older tyres rather than risk losing position with a second pit stop.

“Sorry boys, I let you down today with that strategy. My call and I lost us valuable points,” Hamilton said.

“I’ll try and make up for it in the next one.”

Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur stressed that there was no blame on the team.

“We asked him (Hamilton) to pit. Don’t blame the team guys, clearly on the radio he apologised and said ‘it was my call’,” Vasseur said.