Verstappen wins first Singapore GP with one-stop strategy

Max Verstappen won his first Singapore Grand Prix with a one-stop strategy, while Charles Leclerc and Kimi Antonelli made second stops during the Virtual Safety Car before finishing second and third. The victory capped a weekend in which Verstappen had already secured Grand Prix pole and Sprint pole and won the Sprint.

All three podium finishers started on Softs and switched to Mediums. Verstappen completed 32 laps on his starting Softs, then changed to Mediums and took them to the finish. Leclerc and Antonelli pitted again on lap 39 during the neutralisation for fresh Softs.

Dario Marrafuschi, Pirelli’s motorsport director, said the one-stop strategy was the most competitive regardless of the neutralisations. He called the Soft-Medium combination the most effective option. The Soft, he said, maintained strong performance over long stints; for drivers who used it for around half the race, performance dropped off only in the closing stages.

Only Soft and Medium compounds were used in the race. Marrafuschi said Hard was not a strategically attractive choice: it offered less grip than the softer C4 compound, which showed virtually no degradation, and no tangible advantage in a race already geared towards a one-stop strategy.

Lewis Hamilton completed 44 laps on one set of Softs, the most of any driver on that compound. George Russell’s 39-lap stint was the longest on a single set of Mediums.