Max Verstappen took his first victory around the streets of Singapore in a Sprint that took out nine drivers.
After half an hour of delays, the Sprint finally got underway with a track that was half wet and half dry. Russell was able to make the best of the limited grip off the start to bring himself up to first place ahead of Verstappen, while Hamilton was able to go up to 3rd from a 6th place start.
Chaos would start just one lap later though, as Russell would crash from the lead after touching the kerb on the exit of the final corner, which still had plenty of standing water. While this was happening, Stroll and Perez both retired after making contact with each other, with both of these incidents together bringing out the safety car.
There was more drama that occurred during the safety car period, as Colapinto and Hadjar both suffered mechanical retirements, while Lindblad spun at turn 4 and dropped down the field.
Most of the field were able to keep things clean once the safety car resumed, but Albon would run into the back of Bortoleto, causing the Audi driver to retire, though not before safely bringing his car into the pits.
The race turned quite processional after the restart, with very little action taking place, and the conditions not quite being dry enough for anyone to take the gamble onto dry tyres, with qualifying just hours away.
Leclerc’s intermediates were getting destroyed though throughout the dry sections of the track, allowing the McLarens and Antonelli behind to get stuck behind him, yet no opportunities presented itself.
That was until the last lap, where Norris appeared to think that a gap had opened up for him on the inside of turn 4, and he would make an audacious lunge to try and overtake Piastri, however this would cause both McLarens to spin, dropping them both out of the points and promoting Antonelli to 4th.
Up front, Verstappen took the chequered flag in first place, multiple seconds ahead of Hamilton in 2nd, who never once looked as though he would be able to challenge for the Sprint win.
