F1 Singapore Grand Prix 2025 Recap: George Russell wins as McLaren seal Constructors’ title

Mercedes’ George Russell converted his pole position to a win at the 2025 F1 Singapore Grand Prix. Max Verstappen put in a defensive masterclass late on to see off the faster McLaren drivers for P2, with Lando Norris’ shove early on ensuring Oscar Piastri finished out of the podium places.

While Russell took the race win, McLaren could not be prevented from securing the World Constructors’ Championship, with Norris’ P3 and Piastri’s P4 finishes cementing the title for the Woking-based team.

George Russell got things underway. While he and Max Verstappen kept the proceedings clean, the two McLaren drivers came together. Lando Norris suffered wing damage after clashing with Oscar Piastri at Turn 3. Norris was forced into the wall and retained P3 ahead of Piastri. Meanwhile, Russell slowly began to put some distance between himself and Verstappen, despite the Dutchman starting on the quicker soft compound.

By Lap 10, Russell had built a lead of five seconds over Verstappen, while Norris had fallen out of the DRS range of the Red Bull driver and had his teammate creeping up on him.

Russell continued to breeze in front as McLaren had to switch their strategy, bringing Norris in on Lap 17 given Verstappen’s increasing gap to him.

Verstappen was the first of the front-runners to pit on Lap 20. Switching to the hard compound, he rejoined in P7. Charles Leclerc boxed a couple of laps later, and despite coming out behind Nico Hülkenberg in P10, he quickly passed the German to get back up to P9.

Russell came in for his stop on Lap 26, which allowed Norris to take the lead with Piastri behind him. The Mercedes driver re-joined in P3, almost four seconds clear of Verstappen behind him. Norris was called in the following lap and came out behind Verstappen, nearly five seconds clear. Piastri followed his teammate into the pits the same lap, which saw Russell retake the lead of the race.

A shockingly slow pit stop from Piastri’s crew saw the Australian re-join nine seconds behind his teammate. The pit stop troubles continued elsewhere as well, as Fernando Alonso’s crew struggles saw him drop out of the points and re-join in P15 after running a strong opening stint.

As the race crossed the halfway mark, Verstappen was closing the gap to Russell at the top, which fell to under three seconds by Lap 35. Norris and Piastri followed Verstappen, though they were well off, with Leclerc, Kimi Antonelli, and Lewis Hamilton further down in a zone of their own.

Further down the grid, a spirited Alonso was making up places after being let down by his pit crew. By Lap 43, the veteran Spaniard had made up four places and was up to P11.

As the race entered the final ten laps, Norris was all over Verstappen’s gearbox. Hamilton, meanwhile, was flying and would finish as the fastest man on the track in the final six laps.

Despite struggling with his car’s balance, with his unit inferior to the MCL39, Verstappen secured a P2 finish with a defensive masterclass, fending off every single attempt from Norris in the latter stages of the race.

Ahead of Verstappen, Russell registered one of his most comfortable career wins. Antonelli finished fifth ahead of Leclerc in P6, with Hamilton managing to hang on ahead of Alonso, though the veteran Brit was all over the track towards the end of the race due to a brake issue and was issued a warning for exceeding track limits. Ollie Bearman and Carlos Sainz rounded out the points places.

Their drivers’ P3 and P4 finishes were enough for Mercedes to secure the World Constructors’ Championship with six races to go, taking a much-deserved title following a dominant year and marking a second consecutive Constructors’ title. 

With the Drivers’ title still up for grabs, F1 action moves Austin, Texas, for the 2025 United States Grand Prix in two weeks’ time.