Max Verstappen’s 73rd career victory was surely one of the most overdue of his career. At his 10th attempt, the Red Bull driver finally won the Singapore Grand Prix.
He’d come close several times before. Verstappen had started second four times and converted three of those into second-place finishes. On the other occasion he was wiped out by the Ferrari drivers as they sprinted to turn one.But after finally claiming his first pole position at the Marina Bay circuit, Verstappen never let go of his advantage, leading every lap of the race. However with other drivers switching to the preferred soft tyres over the final stint, Verstappen did not set the fastest lap, so he did not collect his seventh ‘grand slam’.
He has now won at 27 different circuits, a feat only bettered by Lewis Hamilton on 31. Verstappen has won on every track on the calendar with a single exception: the Madring, which held its first grand prix this year.
However in order to complete a clean sweep of victories at every track on the calendar, Verstappen will have to win at three new rounds next year. Two venues where he has raced in F1, but not previously won at, will return on the 2027 F1 calendar.
What’s more, another driver will be in the same position as Verstappen. This is Hamilton, the last driver to have achieved a clean sweep:
| Track | Verstappen’s best result | Hamilton’s best result |
|---|---|---|
| Bahrain International Circuit | 1st | 1st |
| Jeddah Corniche Circuit | 1st | 1st |
| Albert Park | 1st | 1st |
| Suzuka | 1st | 1st |
| Shanghai International Circuit | 1st | 1st |
| Miami International Autodrome | 1st | 6th |
| Circuit Gilles Villeneuve | 1st | 1st |
| Monaco | 1st | 1st |
| Autodromo do Algarve | 2nd | 1st |
| Silverstone | 1st | 1st |
| Red Bull Ring | 1st | 1st |
| Spa-Francorchamps | 1st | 1st |
| Hungaroring | 1st | 1st |
| Monza | 1st | 1st |
| Madring | 2nd | DNF |
| Baku City Circuit | 1st | 1st |
| Istanbul Park | 2nd | 1st |
| Singapore | 1st | 1st |
| Circuit of the Americas | 1st | 1st |
| Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez | 1st | 1st |
| Interlagos | 1st | 1st |
| Las Vegas Strip Circuit | 1st | 2nd |
| Losail International Circuit | 1st | 1st |
| Yas Marina | 1st | 1st |
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Hamilton last achieved a clean sweep when he won the French Grand Prix in 2018. He kept up the achievement over the next two seasons – even as the Covid-19 pandemic added new races to the schedule in 2020 – but his run ended when he failed to win at Zandvoort in 2021.
Verstappen became the fifth driver to achieve 50 pole positions last weekend. He did so in his 250th race start and joins Ayrton Senna, who took 108 races to do the same, Hamilton (168), Michael Schumacher (177) and Sebastian Vettel (196).
This was the fourth year in a row the Singapore Grand Prix has been won from pole position. Verstappen led every lap on his way to victory, which is the fourth ‘lights-to-flag’ victory at the circuit in the last five years, along with Sergio Perez’s win in 2022 (from second on the grid), Carlos Sainz Jnr’s in 2023 and Lando Norris’s from 2024.
Red Bull was only one win behind Mercedes when the season began. However Mercedes has enjoyed such a strong season that Red Bull’s victories in the last two rounds means its is now 10 behind. However Red Bull did end Mercedes’ streak of leading at least one lap in every race this year.
Racing Bulls reached 100 points, which is more than they scored last year and their best score since 2021, when they competed as AlphaTauri.
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But Alpine’s season has decidedly hit the skids as they failed to score for the third round in a row. It was a particularly frustrating weekend for Pierre Gasly, who finished one place outside the points in both the sprint race and grand prix.
Williams left Singapore point-less, too. Carlos Sainz Jnr got his car into the top 10 early on in his 250th appearance in a grand prix weekend, but slipped to 14th at the flag.
Over to you
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