McLarens Brush Wheels as Russell Dominates in F1 Singapore GP

George Russell dominated at Formula 1’s Singapore Grand Prix, but there was discord behind, with title leader Oscar Piastri unhappy at McLaren teammate’s Lando Norris’ first-lap move. Autoweek rounds up the main talking points from Marina Bay.

Piastri stews at Norris’ move

The major talking point in Singapore came on the opening lap, as a cordial relationship between the title-challenging McLaren teammates briefly threatened to boil over.

Lando Norris, sensing an opportunity, took the inside approach for the left-hander of Turn 2, with teammate Oscar Piastri slightly out of position after being checked up by Max Verstappen. On an ever so slightly damp track following pre-race rain, Norris slightly clipped the rear of Verstappen’s car, with the trajectory barging him into the side of Piastri’s car. Norris took third place, with Piastri fourth, and the Australian stewed at the move.

“That wasn’t very team-like but sure,” Piastri radioed. “Are we cool with Lando just barging me out the way OK, what’s the go there?”

There was a brief back-and-forth over whether Norris should cede position, but McLaren opted not to undertake any instructions, while stewards also quickly cleared any incident.

“That’s not fair, I’m sorry, that’s not fair,” Piastri said. “If he has to avoid another car by crashing into his team mate that’s a pretty s*** job of avoiding.”

Norris trailed home Verstappen to take third, with Piastri fourth, and post-race team boss Andrea Stella put Piastri’s frustration into perspective.

“Oscar made some statements while he was in the car,” Stells said. “But that’s the kind of character that we want to have from our drivers. They have to make their position very clear. That’s what we ask them.”

It made for a slightly peculiar post-race atmosphere as the result was sufficient for McLaren to clinch this year’s Constructors’ Championship, a record-equaling six rounds early, and in the aftermath Piastri and Norris shook hands and celebrated together. McLaren will review the incident in the week and hold conversations with both drivers.

The outcome of the race is such that Piastri’s lead over Norris has been trimmed to 22 points, with Verstappen still a threat 63 points in arrears.

Russell dominates for second win

George Russell was pessimistic over Mercedes’ prospects in Singapore, particularly after a messy Friday, but the Briton backed up pole position with an emphatic victory.

Much of the hard work for Russell was done in the opening stint of the 62-lap race, which ran green throughout as all 20 starters were classified, as he stretched the pace up front to build an eight-second lead. Nearest rival Max Verstappen briefly closed in after the sole round of pit stops but Russell’s command of the race was never seriously threatened, and he eventually cruised home five seconds clear. It was the second victory of the season for Russell, and for his Mercedes team, and the fifth of his career.

“This track has not always been my best friend over the years, maybe from my own doing,” Russell said, referencing crashing out of third on the final lap in 2023. “We didn’t start the weekend in the best way either, but come Q3 yesterday I felt really good in the car, and that carried on into today. It was such a long race, so I was very glad to see the checkered flag, but we ultimately had it all under control.”

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff was also enthused by the runaway success.

“That was an amazing drive from George this evening,” Wolff said. “He controlled the race from lights out to the chequered flag to take a brilliant win. The pace he and the car had was surprising but strong and that was the winning formula today.”

McLaren title highlights Ferrari woes

Ferrari fought McLaren for last year’s Constructors’ Championship until the final round, and the official end to the 2025 teams’ title fight in Singapore highlighted the fabled Italian marque’s subdued campaign.

Ferrari has mustered just five podiums all season—all courtesy of Charles Leclerc—and in Singapore the SF-25 was again in no man’s land. Lewis Hamilton out-qualified Leclerc but the pair were only sixth and seventh, positions they both replicated in the race, with Leclerc finishing ahead on account of Hamilton’s off-kilter strategy being wrecked by a severely deteriorating brake issue in the closing laps. Leclerc, too, was struggling with brakes, just to compound a miserable weekend. Hamilton was demoted to eighth by a post-race time penalty for cutting the track while managing his dire brake issue.

“From lap eight it was basically all about managing the brakes,” Leclerc said. “Everyone has to manage to a certain extent, but I think we were on the worst of it.”

It was a race that summed up Ferrari’s middling campaign.

“Unfortunately we don’t have the race car to fight with the cars in front,” Leclerc said. “It feels like we are kind of passengers to the car and we cannot extract much more. I think every time you don’t fight for wins it’s difficult but coming from a year last year, fighting for the Constructors’ title, and you come here with high expectations, and you don’t even see a progression throughout the year, it’s not easy.”

Leclerc stressed that motivation remains high but, after a fifth straight event without a podium, was pessimistic about Ferrari’s prospects through the rest of 2025.

“The picture we’ve seen this weekend is going to be what the rest of the season looks [like] for us,” Leclerc surmised.

Entertainer Alonso leads the midfield

Fernando Alonso’s days of competing for victories and titles are currently a distant memory—one he hopes to rekindle under new regulations in 2026—and for now the two-time champion has to make do with leading the midfield pack. That was achieved in a typically entertaining Alonso fashion in Singapore, with his radio quips providing a couple of the highlights in a race which meandered for much of the 62-lap affair.

“We had a good race tonight and the car was behaving well,” Alonso said. “Hopefully we can score some more points at the remaining rounds of the Championship.”

There was also a strong outcome from the weekend for Haas’ Ollie Bearman, who caught the eye through most of the weekend, converting his grid position of ninth to return the team to the points.

One of the evening’s outstanding performances came courtesy of Williams and Carlos Sainz. The team was excluded from qualifying after a DRS infringement—with the flap wider than permitted—but Sainz rose from 18th on the grid and ran a long first stint, before profiting from fresher tires to grab the final point available in 10thspot.