Prix

Russell said he and his team had analysed the season so far and worked out that he has had a trouble-free run in only six of this season’s 20 races.

“These issues constantly keep popping up but unfortunately this always seems like it’s on my side of the garage,” he said.

“We concluded we’ve only had six races from the 20 where we’ve had a clean weekend. So to think 14 of those weekends have had issues is unbelievable.

“We need to look to understand why that is, if there’s something we are overlooking or if it’s just pure misfortune. At the moment it does seem like it’s more misfortune than anything.

“In a normal season you might have two weekends or three weekends where there are issues. We’ve had three quarters of this season and that has been incredibly unfortunate.”

He said it was the fact that he had been struck by another technical glitch that made him skip his media duties after last weekend’s Mexico City race, rather than the fact Antonelli had just won the title.

Russell, who started second to Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari, had a loss of power on the run to the first corner when the electrical part of the power-unit did not reply properly.

He was swamped by the field, and then collided with Isack Hadjar’s Red Bull at Turn Six, earning himself a 10-second penalty. He finished sixth and dropped from second to fourth in the drivers’ championship, behind Antonelli, Max Verstappen and Hamilton.

“In racing you always pick yourself back up and for me the best way to pick myself back up was getting out of there,” Russell said on media day for this weekend’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

“It was as simple as that, really. I was just very upset with missing out on the chance of a good result because the championship for me was already over but I just couldn’t believe how things had panned out again.

“In that moment, yeah, I just wanted to get out of there.

“I think I’m 99% of the time a true professional and I try not to spit my dummy out, but sometimes missing out on doing the press – OK, it’s not ideal but not the end of the world.

“Moments like that you don’t really want to deal with it.”

Marc Marquez takes 44-point lead over Jorge Martin and can seal the MotoGP title in Qatar next weekend.

Reigning ‌MotoGP champion Marc Marquez has won the Malaysian Grand Prix to ⁠take a 44-point lead over absent title rival Jorge Martin in the championship and inch closer to retaining his title.

The Ducati rider shot out of the blocks and beat his brother Alex, the pole-sitter, into the ⁠opening turn on Sunday in Sepang.

Alex Marquez was able to quickly regain the lead but ran wide a turn later to hand it back, and his brother made no mistakes from that point on to claim ⁠the chequered flag for the first ⁠time since 2018.

Victory moved seven-time MotoGP champion Marc Marquez up to 399 points in the championship standings, 44 ahead of Martin, who did not compete after suffering a wrist fracture.

If Marc Marquez is able to extend his lead to 74 points at next week’s Qatar Grand Prix, he could seal an eighth championship title ‌with two rounds remaining in the season.

“We did a perfect race, so I’m super, super happy,” said the winner, who won the race by more than four seconds.

“But my mentality still cannot change. I have to keep focus, keep pushing. There are not many races to go, but there are many moments left. So we must be super confident.”

Saturday’s sprint winner, Pedro Acosta of KTM, finished second while Gresini’s Alex Marquez was third.

After losing the lead ⁠to his brother, Alex Marquez was drawn into a duel with Acosta, ⁠who stuck to the wheel of the Gresini rider for several laps before expertly overtaking him at the midway point of the race.

By then, however, the distance to the leader had already grown too large to overcome.

Aprilia rider Marco Bezzecchi, ⁠an outside contender for the title, finished in sixth place after being overtaken late by both Trackhouse rider Ai Ogura and Tech3’s Enea Bastianini.

Marc Marquez’s main title rival, Martin, had initially looked set to return ⁠in Malaysia and briefly tried to compete in Saturday morning’s practice session.

However, the Aprilia rider was visibly struggling and eventually did not take part in qualifying, ending his weekend early to continue his recovery from the fracture he sustained in a crash ‌at Phillip Island, Australia, last week.

The Spaniard, who won the title in 2024, conceded that his MotoGP title challenge was essentially over after his withdrawal.

The MotoGP season next moves to the Lusail International ‌Circuit ‌for the Qatar Grand Prix, which is set to go ahead next weekend despite pushback from riders concerned about going there during the United States-Israel war on Iran.

Esteban Ocon has denied reports that his being dropped by Haas at the Mexico City Grand Prix was a consequence of a row with team principal Ayao Komatsu descending into a physical confrontation.

The Frenchman, 30, admitted in a statement on social media that “a difference in viewpoints led to a discussion with the parties involved”.

But he said he “categorically rejected any reports or allegations suggesting that any form of physical violence was used to resolve any differences of any nature”.

His statement followed a report in France’s L’Equipe, external which said that a meeting between Komatsu and Ocon “ended abruptly, perhaps even physically”.

The decision to stand Ocon down from the rest of the Mexico weekend came after he had had a dispute with race engineer Laura Mueller about tyre choice during second practice on Friday.

Mueller had informed him that plans to run the soft-compound tyre had been changed and he would now use the medium.

He replied: “No, no. I want to do soft… don’t do that to me, come on.”

The team have not issued any further information what happened after the session.

So far, Haas have only said that Ocon has been dropped for this weekend’s race.

The team announced last month that he would be leaving Haas at the end of the season. He is being replaced by the Brazilian Rafael Camara, leader of the Formula 2 championship and a member of the Ferrari driver development programme.

Neither Haas not sources within Ocon’s management have commented on whether Ocon will drive for Haas again at any of this year’s remaining races.

Ocon’s statement on Saturday continued: “I strongly condemn violence in all its forms and firmly believe that disagreements should always be handled with professionalism, respect, and mutual understanding.

“I kindly ask that speculation be avoided while the matter is being addressed. Further updates will be communicated in due course.”

Hamilton said his pole, on his 43rd start for Ferrari, was “one of the greatest feelings”.

It is not the first time he has qualified fastest for Ferrari – that was when he took sprint pole at the Chinese Grand Prix last year, in only his second race for the team.

But that was followed by a difficult debut season, when he looked a shadow of his former self, and was pretty much taken to the cleaners by Leclerc.

Hamilton’s record is such that his performances last year left many perplexed – not least himself. He was consistently down on himself, even saying at one low point in the summer of 2025 that he was “just useless” and suggesting Ferrari should change drivers.

As this followed a similarly challenging final year for Mercedes, it inevitably led to questions about his future, whether age was catching up with him. After all, he had no explanations for his performances himself.

His form has improved this year, with a car that he finds much more to his liking, and he has a number of times referenced these perfectly valid questions. He did so again on Saturday.

“It’s impossible to rank 105 pole positions,” he said. “They have all been unique in their own way. It feels more special in this period where they’re not every week and it’s the first one with Ferrari in red.

“I’ve now had pole with three different teams, which is pretty phenomenal. And all the questions people had about whether a 40-year-old has still got it, there you go.”

The battle between Hamilton and Leclerc has been much more even this year.

Hamilton leads his team-mate by eight points in the championship and in qualifying there is nothing to choose between them – it is now 12-10 in their head-to-head and Leclerc is ahead on average pace by just 0.037secs, when the gap was 0.15secs last year.

“I have been fortunate to have many great experiences with Mercedes over the years,” said Hamilton. “We have had sprint pole but I have been really dreaming and eyeing for that first pole with the team.

“Charles is very, very quick over one lap. He has had an engineer he has worked with for years. It’s an environment he is very aware of and used to.

“I am still settling in and learning, with new engineers this year. We have really found a good rapport and are really doing a great job. There is lots more to come, we just have to keep on at it, but what an amazing feeling to get that first.”

Hamilton goes into the race with less knowledge than his rivals, a breakdown in second practice meaning he was not able to do his race-simulation run.

“It will will be a massive challenge to find the right balance but I am hopeful, it will be challenging and tough,” he said.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc headed McLaren’s Lando Norris in Friday practice at the Mexico City Grand Prix.

Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli, who is poised to clinch his first world title on Sunday, was fourth fastest behind team-mate George Russell.

Only a victory by Russell or Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton can theoretically stop Antonelli becoming champion on Sunday. Even then, Antonelli only needs ninth place if Russell wins and 10th if Hamilton does.

Leclerc, who topped both sessions on Friday, was 0.103 seconds quicker than Norris, with Russell just 0.003secs further adrift.

Antonelli was 0.217secs off the pace, and ahead of the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar.

Leclerc’s team-mate Lewis Hamilton was 11th overall after stopping on track with a technical problem before completing his qualifying simulation runs on the soft tyre.

Behind Hadjar, Racing Bulls duo Arvid Lindblad and Liam Lawson sandwiched Pierre Gasly’s Alpine, while McLaren’s Oscar Piastri completed the top 10.

Verstappen and Lawson face a trip to the stewards after a collision in the stadium early in the session.

“I don’t think it’s called unlucky,” said Verstappen. “Maybe not very smart behaviour what he was trying to do there.

“At the end of the day it is not going to change my weekend, but if I were him I would act a little smarter and when you’re fighting for your seat it’s not very smart behaviour.”

Lawson is one of three drivers competing for two seats at Racing Bulls, Red Bull’s junior team, next year, alongside current team-mate Arvid Lindblad and Bulgarian Formula 2 front-runner Nikola Tsolov.

Verstappen added: “When he saw me coming, he suddenly started to accelerate. I don’t know what was going through his head, that he wanted to drive me off the track in the hairpin.

“That’s not very sensible behavior from someone in his position, to pick a fight with me.”

The first session was marked by 10 of the 11 teams running ‘rookie’ drivers in their cars.

One of them was Cadillac’s Colton Herta, who the team are considering promoting to a race seat in place of Valtteri Bottas next season.

Initially, the team felt his running in Mexico had given him enough points under the F1 system to earn a ‘superlicence’, which is required to race in F1.

But further investigation by governing body the FIA revealed the American nine-time Indycar race winner is still one point short and will have to complete one further practice session this year to secure his licence.

The team plan to do that before the end of the season.

Championship leader Kimi Antonelli sealed his ninth victory of the season with victory at the United States Grand Prix in Austin.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was second and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen third.

Mercedes’ Antonelli, 20, can become the youngest world champion in Formula 1 history if he finishes ninth or higher at the Mexico City Grand Prix next weekend.

Here are my ratings for how the drivers performed across the whole weekend in Texas.

Kimi Antonelli – 10/10

A superb weekend under the added pressure of having his first opportunity to seal the championship. Produced an outstanding lap for pole and then controlled the race beautifully, making the one-stop work while many around him needed two.

Charles Leclerc – 9.5/10

Very close to a perfect weekend himself. Fastest in both Friday practice sessions, qualified fourth and then raced brilliantly in his Ferrari to second, including late passes on Lando Norris and Max Verstappen.

Max Verstappen – 8.5/10

Quick all weekend and put the Red Bull on the front row, but the poor start immediately made his race more difficult. Recovered well despite problems with the car and still came away with a sixth consecutive podium.

Lewis Hamilton – 7.5/10

Another strong weekend but behind team-mate Leclerc for the majority of it. Fastest in final practice, only narrowly behind Leclerc in qualifying and fought his way back to fourth after Ferrari committed to the two-stop strategy.

Lando Norris – 8/10

Recovered well from eighth on the grid but qualifying should have been better as his quickest Q3 lap was deleted for track limits. McLaren’s decision to leave him out on ageing tyres cost him late on, so fifth was not entirely of his own making.

Isack Hadjar – 8.5/10

An excellent turnaround after struggling badly with the Red Bull during practice. Qualified a superb third, ran strongly in the race and eventually finished sixth despite throttle mapping problems and moving aside for team-mate Verstappen.

Oscar Piastri – 6.5/10

A fairly subdued weekend by the McLaren man’s standards. Seventh in qualifying and seventh in the race, although the first-lap battle with George Russell went against him and the stewards decided the Mercedes driver was at fault.

George Russell – 5.5/10

A disappointing weekend given what the other Mercedes achieved. Admitted both of his Q3 laps were poor and then picked up a five-second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage in his battle with Piastri, eventually finishing eighth.

Liam Lawson – 8/10

Another quietly excellent weekend from Lawson. Racing Bulls sacrificed a proper Q3 attempt to preserve tyres for Sunday and he converted ninth on the grid into ninth at the finish to score again.

Pierre Gasly – 8/10

Probably extracted just about everything available from the Alpine. Missed Q3 but fought his way back into the points after an early dice with Haas’ Oliver Bearman.

Race delayed by two hours before being cancelled due to low visibility despite a sellout crowd at Phillip Island.

The final Australian MotoGP at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit has been called off due to heavy rain, ruining the farewell for one of the championship’s most beloved circuits.

It was a crushing blow for the sold-out crowd at Phillip Island on Sunday before the Australian Grand Prix moves to the streets of Adelaide next year.

The Moto2 and Moto3 races were cancelled first, and the MotoGP race was delayed by two hours due to the weather before organisers threw in the towel and finally called it off at 3:40pm (04:40 GMT).

“Due to limited visibility affecting the operation of the medical helicopter the MotoGP Grand Prix race has been cancelled,” MotoGP said in a statement.

“The MotoGP riders will do a lap behind the safety car and stop on the main straight to greet the fans.”

Riders say farewell to fans in final parade

The dark clouds and pelting rain brought down the visibility around the circuit, affecting the medical helicopter, which would take 45 minutes to reach the circuit from mainland Melbourne in an emergency.

Other than two years lost to the COVID-19 pandemic, the seaside track south of Melbourne had been a fixture on the world championship calendar for 30 years and produced some of Australian motorcycling’s most memorable moments.

Australian two-time world champion Casey Stoner celebrated six wins there in succession from 2007 to 2012 while compatriot Mick Doohan sealed his fifth and final world title with victory in the 1998 race.

The raincoat-clad fans who persevered through the precipitation were treated to a farewell lap from the MotoGP riders, who waved as they slowly made their way around a soaking wet track.

Home racer Jack Miller did his best to entertain his supporters with a series of tricks, including a stand-up wheelie over the finish line, before heading over to the grandstand and throwing his gloves and boots into the crowd.

Miller dejected, sigh of relief for Martin

The Pramac Racing rider, a strong performer in the wet, cut a dejected figure when he was interviewed after completing his lap.

“This is a tough pill to swallow,” said the 31-year-old, who will be leaving MotoGP at the end of the season after more than a decade to join Pata Maxus Yamaha in the World Superbike Championship.

“You know, I was praying for rain all weekend. We got the rain, but obviously, we weren’t organised enough to get the racing going, so it’s a tough one.

“You guys deserve better. Honestly, all of you have done a fantastic job turning out for Phillip Island.”

Rain had been expected for the weekend, but MotoGP did not revive its 2023 strategy for the circuit when the Grand Prix was moved ahead to Saturday and the sprint scheduled for Sunday.

That sprint race three years ago was eventually called off.

The cancellation of the race also ended the opportunity for seven-time MotoGP champion Marc Marquez to extend his lead in the championship standings, particularly after his title rival Jorge Martin was declared unfit to compete in the race after fracturing his wrist.

Martin held the championship lead heading into the weekend but finds himself 10 points behind Marquez after failing to finish Saturday’s sprint following a gruesome crash.

On Sunday, Martin’s Aprilia team said he would not travel back to Spain to undergo treatment, however, boosting the 2024 champion’s hopes of racing at next week’s Malaysian Grand Prix and remaining in the title fight.

He came into the weekend insisting he was going to try to apply the “same mindset as I had all year – one race at a time”.

But on Saturday he acknowledged that this one was a new kind of weekend.

“It does feel a little bit different,” he said. “But the goal stays the same. I just need to keep doing my job. And, actually, I feel like I can enjoy more driving, everything.

“But, of course, we’re going to do the race tomorrow. We’re going to try and win. And then we’ll see what happens. Obviously, I’m in a very good position.”

Antonelli is typically accompanied by his father, Marco, at grands prix, but he said this weekend he had brought other people with him as well to help keep him in the right frame of mind.

“I have a great group of people around me,” he said. “I have a lot of friends here as well, so we enjoy the evenings together.

“We play cards in the evening, so we’re just doing the fun stuff. And that’s what helps, to just relax a little bit and just connect with the mind, and then once you go on track you are back full focus.”

The maths suggest the most likely scenario is that Antonelli will not win the title on Sunday – it would, as he put it on Thursday, require “something catastrophic to happen to the others”.

If this is a bit of an overstatement – Russell and Hamilton would need only to crash together on the first lap, for example – the fundamental truth is real.

Kimi Antonelli took pole position for the United States Grand Prix on the weekend on which he can potentially clinch his first world title.

The Mercedes driver beat Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by 0.179 seconds, with the Dutchman’s team-mate Isack Hadjar third ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton.

Antonelli whooped with delight as he took his first pole position since the Belgian Grand Prix in July and said: “It feels good to be back.”

The 20-year-old Italian will become world champion on Sunday if he wins the race in Austin with Hamilton lower than fourth and Russell lower than eighth.

Hamilton is already below that position having qualified fifth, while Russell will start sixth ahead of the McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.

Antonelli’s pole came as something of a surprise after the Ferraris had topped all three practice sessions and Verstappen had looked strong through the second part of qualifying.

“I wasn’t expecting that,” said Antonelli’s engineer Peter Bonnington, emphasising that his charge’s first lap in final qualifying was good enough for pole.

Verstappen had been fourth quickest in Q2 despite being on used tyres but he found his car lacked the requisite grip in the final session.

Antonelli said: “We got pole so we will try to win tomorrow but Max has been very quick and Isack did an incredible job so it is not going to be easy.

“We try to get a good start and hopefully lead into Turn One and try to set the pace, even though it’s going to be very tight.”

Verstappen said: “Q3 was not good, Q1, Q2 were nice but for whatever reason in run one and two just didn’t have a nice balance. No mistakes, just not enough grip. But if it’s still a P2, I take it.”

Ferrari have an upgrade on their car this weekend, focused on a new floor, but Leclerc was downplaying expectations.

“It felt good but it is not the gain I have seen or heard about,” Leclerc said. “It is small gains but we could still see them on the car. It is a small step forward and we started the weekend on the right foot with a good balance and that is the outstanding thing with this Friday.

“It has been a very clean Friday for me, but the others seem to be gaining more than us from Friday to Saturday and seeing the little gap there is, it is not going to be so easy tomorrow.”

Leclerc picked up on Verstappen’s complaints about the track surface on Thursday by saying: “It was very poor. The first sector is particularly poor and very bumpy.”

McLaren’s Lando Norris was seventh fastest, although the world champion did not set a time on his qualifying simulation run on soft tyres after making a mistake at Turn 16.

Norris was the fastest on the long runs, at about 0.2secs on average faster than Verstappen, but cannot be compared as he was running the hard tyre.

McLaren have introduced the first of three consecutive planned upgrades this weekend, but he was not happy with his performance.

“Difficult,” Norris said. “The pace is not bad. We seem a step away from Red Bull and Ferrari, probably Mercedes as well, but the car is very difficult to drive, too difficult to be consistent and get a nice feeling consistently.

“To get the car be quick we just have to try so hard to be perfect and you can’t be perfect. I am sure everyone has similar problems in a way but we are just not quick enough yet to be there consistently enough.”

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri was eighth quickest, ahead of Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar and Haas driver Oliver Bearman.

The track is built on former marshland and that has made it difficult for organisers to keep it in good condition, but the four-time champion rejected that as a reason not to try to solve the issue.

“You can use the excuse that the soil is the problem but then you should have known that and you need to make sure that you reinforce it more,” Verstappen said.

“Last year, for example, you pull around 5-6G in a corner, but I had some impacts, vertical load, which was over 9G on my spine, which I can tell you is really not fun, and especially the older you get, you think about that more and more.”

Verstappen said the problem was likely to be exacerbated this year because although the cars from 2022-25 had lower ride-heights overall, the way the cars are run under the latest regulations means they are running lower in corners than last season.

That’s because of the switch between having the front and rear wings open in drag-reduction mode on the straights and closing in corners means the cars drop down towards the ground when they brake.

“You bottom out way harder, because when the wings close and the ride-height comes down, under braking is actually a very stressful moment, and I know around here in some places, it’s very bumpy under braking,” he said.

“Especially when it’s like these kind of awkward bumps, not just bumps from the track getting older, but the surface underneath the soil just moving up and down, sometimes (it’s) very hard to expect, or if you’re like a tiny bit offline, you don’t know what is there, because no-one really drives here sometimes.

“I can tell you from the checks that I’ve done from my spine, the bottom end doesn’t look that great.

“I know that’s part of racing. I know that can be part of sport, but it’s also further damage from the cars that we had the last few years.

“And now if we continue with finding this acceptable to drive on, then you are going to suffer with that much more.”

And the DRC’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Therese Kayikwamba Wagner said in a statement last week that “giving (Rwanda President) Paul Kagame this platform would help polish the image of an authoritarian leader whose government has helped fuel a devastating war in our country”.

She pointed out that the US had sanctioned the Rwandan army and four senior officers for their role in destabilising the region, conducting military operations inside the DRC and supporting, training and fighting alongside the M23 rebel group.

She added that F1 “should require credible, independent guarantees that no money used to host the race comes from conflict-linked minerals or the exploitation of Congolese resources”.

Seven-time world champion Hamilton said: “Africa is a place that deserves to have a grand prix. It’s about more than just one country. It’s about the continent itself, and there are so many beautiful countries within it.

“The people are so lovely. The culture is so rich, and I think it’s important that we get to show that to the world. We get to do that with our sport. We get to go to all these different countries, and people see some of these countries they didn’t really know too much about.

“All of a sudden, it becomes something that’s on the screen, and kids are talking about it. They go to school talking about it. So, I’m really, really hopeful for that grand prix.”

However, the Ferrari driver added: “Going there doesn’t mean that you neglect the things that are happening there.

“So hopefully many people start to educate themselves a little bit more about what is happening there and what has happened there for hundreds of years. I hope that does spark the conversation.

“And then I guess I’ll finish it off with this: I think we need to make sure we’re pushing to free Congo, free Sudan, free Syria, free Palestine. I think there’s a lot of peace that I’m hoping we get to at some stage.”

Briton Freddie Slater will have his first experience of a Formula 1 car on a grand prix weekend when he drives for Audi in first practice in Mexico City on 30 October.

The 18-year-old will have a second outing a week later at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

Slater was the first driver to be brought into Audi’s driver development programme following the German company’s entry into F1 this season.

Allan McNish, Audi’s racing director and head of the driver development programme, said: “We have seen Freddie making great progress throughout recent years, both on and off the track.

“It is the right time for Freddie to step up.

“These appearances in Mexico and Brazil will give him valuable experience of a Formula 1 race weekend, and another chance to continue his development before he steps up to Formula 2 next season.”

Slater said: “Getting behind the wheel of an F1 car at a grand prix weekend is a big moment for me and something I’ve been dreaming of since I was a kid.

“I’ve learned a lot this year, and these free practice outings will be another opportunity to keep gaining on-track experience.”

Slater finished second on his debut in the Formula 3 championship this season and is moving up to Formula 2 in 2027 with the front-running Invicta team.

Invicta driver Rafael Camara is leading this year’s F2 championship and is moving up to F1 next season with the US-based Haas team.

Hamilton had started on the medium tyres while Verstappen and Leclerc chose the softs. Despite his theoretically more durable tyres, the Briton pitted on lap 18 to switch to the softs, while Leclerc waited until lap 24 to swap his softs for mediums.

Leclerc came out of the pits from his stop just ahead of Hamilton, who had stronger pace on his softer tyres.

Yet Ferrari chose not to order Leclerc to let Hamilton through to maximise his pace, a decision that was questioned by Hamilton from the car.

A virtual safety car was called on lap 39 and Leclerc and Antonelli, who had chased the Ferraris closely from the start from his fourth place on the grid, took the opportunity for a cheap pit stop – it takes 10 seconds less to stop under a safety car than under racing conditions.

Yet Hamilton, despite having older tyres, did not stop, a decision that promoted him to second behind Verstappen.

As Leclerc was catching Hamilton, the Briton was told he needed to stop again; he pushed back to suggest he try to go to the end, but was told they were six laps short to make it in terms of tyre life.

Leclerc soon caught Hamilton and passed him on lap 46 and set off after Verstappen, but could get no closer than 7.3 seconds to the Red Bull.

Hamilton never did stop, but as his tyres lost grip he fell back into the clutches of Norris and Antonelli.

A passing attempt by Norris on lap 54 with eight to go saw Hamilton run off track and take to the escape road at Turn One, but as he did, Antonelli grabbed the chance to pass the McLaren, and then Hamilton later on the same lap.

Norris followed him through, and now Hamilton fell back towards the second McLaren of Oscar Piastri, who passed him on the final lap after a resolute attempted defence from Hamilton.

It was Hamilton’s call not to stop and he apologised for it on the slowing down lap – but there remain a number of questions as to the choices made.

Russell’s fight back through the field took him up to seventh as he delayed his pit stop as long as possible.

But after dropping back to 10th behind Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, he passed Gasly after trailing him for 10 laps or so, but could not make it past Hulkenberg, who was himself chasing Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson.

Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar took the final point in 10th after starting from the back.

Marco Bezzecchi triumphed at the Indonesian Grand Prix, while Jorge Martin finished third to retake the lead from Marc Marquez in the MotoGP world championship.

Italian Bezzecchi made his move on pole-sitter Raul Fernandez with nine laps to go at a sweltering Mandalika International Circuit.

Fernandez finished second ahead of compatriot Martin, with the Spanish duo locking out the podium for Italian manufacturer Aprilia.

Ducati’s reigning seven-time world champion Marquez finished sixth, losing the championship lead he had taken for the first time this season by winning Saturday’s sprint race.

Fernandez and Bezzecchi had clashed and crashed out in that race, with the Spaniard needing to brake with his middle finger for the whole of Sunday’s race after fracturing his index finger.

Starting at the front of the grid, the pair negotiated the first turn and then surged away from the chasing pack.

Having initially looked comfortable, Fernandez began to fade and Bezzecchi seized an opportunity on lap 19 before putting distance on his rival.

The result for 2024 world champion Martin moves him up to 355 points at the top of the championship standings, with Marquez second on 353 and Bezzecchi third with 309.

There are five grands prix remaining in the 2026 season, with the Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island the next meeting in the calendar in a fortnight’s time.

If that is not a major concern for Antonelli, it certainly is for McLaren.

They had their own purple patch in the summer, when Lando Norris took consecutive wins in Hungary and the Netherlands, and would have won in Madrid had it not been for the unfortunate timing of a virtual safety car.

But the world champions have slipped from competitiveness in recent races, and before the Singapore Grand Prix they lie in third place in the constructors’ championship, only 11 points ahead of Red Bull.

Saturday in Singapore was a bad day at the office for McLaren.

Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris were heading for fourth and fifth places in the sprint when Norris made a dive down the inside of his team-mate at Turn Five on the final lap.

This is not a common overtaking spot and from a McLaren point of view it was a move with no reward, only risk.

The move might have made sense if it had come earlier in the race and enabled Norris to challenge Leclerc, struggling in front of them, for third.

But on the last lap, Norris was not going to have a go at Leclerc even if he had got through – the only remaining overtaking place was at the end of the following straight into Turn Seven.

If the McLaren drivers swapped places, it would make no difference to the team in terms of a collective points haul, but if it went wrong, the cost could be high.

And so it did. Norris was in a position to make a legitimate move, but they came together, pirouetted in tandem, Piastri into the barriers and out of the race and Norris slipping down to eighth. Nine points had become one.

The stewards took no action, feeling that “both drivers had contributed to the incident”.

Piastri had explained in the hearing that he did not expect Norris to try a move there, and attempted to leave space when he saw him.

Norris argued that his his car was in a position that, according to the rules, entitled him to make an overtaking attempt, so expected to be left space and had braked and gone over the kerb when he realised he was not going to get as much as he expected.

He said: “There are two sides, one is what the stewards say and that’s a fair reasoning, no-one’s to blame. But I did apologise because it was still me attacking, as I had the right to do. If I just sat there and was boring like I should be, nothing would have happened. So really it’s still my fault but I deserved to go for the space and I still believe I had the right for it.”

Norris added: “As you probably expect, no-one’s very happy. I’m not happy, Oscar isn’t happy. None of us wanted it to go that way. There was things both of us could have done better and, yeah, we spoke about it and we moved on.”

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took his second pole position in a week by beating the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton in qualifying at the Singapore Grand Prix.

Verstappen’s first lap in final qualifying was enough to take pole, his time fending off a second lap from Leclerc that was 0.054 seconds off pole.

Hamilton was closest to Verstappen after the first runs but was unable to improve on his second run.

In fact, most of the front runners struggled to improve on their second runs, as Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli took fourth on the grid, from McLaren’s Lando Norris.

Antonelli’s team-mate George Russell was sixth fastest but will drop to the back of the grid with a penalty for using too many engine parts.

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri was the only driver in the top four teams other than Leclerc to improve on his second run but could do no better than qualify seventh.

Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and the Racing Bulls of Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad completed the top 10.

More to follow

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won an incident-packed sprint race at the Singapore Grand Prix after Mercedes driver George Russell crashed out of the lead.

Russell was leading in tricky conditions, with half the track dry and half wet, when he got a little too wide at the final corner at the end of the first lap.

He lost control of his Mercedes, which spun across the track into the inside wall, before bouncing back again to the outside, the rest of the field somehow avoiding him.

A final-lap collision between the McLarens as Lando Norris tried to pass Oscar Piastri at Turn Five promoted Russell’s team-mate Kimi Antonelli to fourth place.

In combination with Russell’s retirement, that extends the Italian’s championship lead to 89 points.

More to follow

Verstappen’s pole lap appeared to be further confirmation of Red Bull’s resurgence after his dominant win in Malaysia but he faces an investigation for overtaking under yellow flags shown before the first session was stopped for the Perez incident.

The four-time champion said he had not believed pole was possible before qualifying.

“We have some difficulties with the car in ride, as we know,” he said, “but at least when we went to the soft tyres (in the final session), it made the car a bit more stable in places where before you were a bit unsure.

“I did not expect this but you take it, I’m happy for sure. Qualifying tomorrow is still the main goal and for us the start is always a critical point but at least a positive end to our day.”

Russell’s performance compared with that of Antonelli raises further doubts about the efficacy of the Mercedes upgrade introduced in Malaysia.

It was their biggest car update since the Canadian Grand Prix in May but team boss Toto Wolff said at Sepang that it had appeared to take them backwards rather than forwards.

Mercedes split the car spec here in Singapore in an attempt to better understand its performance but Antonelli ended the session 0.573secs behind Russell.

The Briton said: “As a team there is still nothing telling us it isn’t working but it’s all driven by the stopwatch and, yeah, the stopwatch hasn’t been great for the upgrade yet. Maybe tomorrow’s a different day.”

Antonelli, who leads the championship by 84 points going into the weekend, said: “Already FP1 I was struggling and there is still a lot to understand about this package. Really the car is very difficult, very unpredictable, very difficult to put a lap together. It’s a shame. I was coming with high hopes but so far it has been very difficult.

“It’s going to be a difficult weekend unless we can pull something out tomorrow. Other than that it is going very tricky. I don’t really see where we can find 0.7secs but you never know.”

Wolff said before sprint qualifying: “The new car seems to be a little more tricky to drive. Not saying it’s necessarily slower, because there will be goodness in it, but maybe we haven’t just found a way of putting it all together and tuning it. The older car is a bit more stable, grippy, but that is really just one data point.”

Leclerc was 0.243secs off pole, and ruing what he said was Ferrari “losing a little bit of our raw performance” in the past three or four races.

However, he added: “Still I feel there is potential in the car and maybe tomorrow we can be there or thereabouts in fighting for pole.”

Hamilton said: “We did a slightly different run plan to the others. It was my choice, but I think we got that wrong. But ultimately, the car was very oversteery on that lap. If the rears [tyres] are not ready or they are overheating, it’s difficult to say. But it was very snappy and oversteery in the lap overall.”

The Singapore Grand Prix has been declared a heat-hazard race, the second weekend in a row that the designation has been used in Formula 1 and the fourth time this year.

The definition allows teams to fit cooling devices to their cars that pump liquid through a vest worn by the driver to manage temperatures in the cockpit.

A heat hazard is an official status for an event where it is forecast that temperatures will exceed 31C at some point during the race. It was first introduced in 2025.

Singapore is close to the equator and has long been known as one of the most demanding for drivers – in 2024, George Russell and Lewis Hamilton were treated for heat exhaustion after the race.

Temperatures in the city are always in the 31-33C region across the race weekend, with high humidity and a chance of rain every day.

The race is held at night, but temperatures remain in the region of 30C even after dark.

A cooling kit is not mandatory, but any driver who chooses not to use it has to carry 5kg of ballast in their car to ensure he does not have a competitive advantage.

The system uses a cooling tank and pump, usually situated in the car’s nose, that delivers a cooled liquid, such as glycol, through a system of pipes in a fireproof top worn under their overalls.

Some teams and drivers prefer not to use the system because of two key compromises.

It is difficult to keep the liquid cool enough for long enough so that it lasts for an entire grand prix – a problem exacerbated in Singapore because it is the longest race of the year.

And some drivers find the cooling top uncomfortable in the tight confines of the cockpit.

If the liquid cannot be kept cool, it reverts to car temperature, which is considerably higher than ambient. It is not unusual for temperatures in an F1 cockpit to rise above 40C.

Mercedes are one of the teams who have decided against running the system because they preferred to devote the resource that would have been involved in making it robust enough to last a race into car performance.

Governing body the FIA has granted teams an allowance under the cost cap of $50,000 (£38,000) if they can make a system that keeps the liquid cool for an entire grand prix, and a further $75,000 (£57,000) if they could make the top comfortable.

Mercedes deputy team principal Bradley Lord described the allowance as “small”, adding: “We didn’t believe that allowance was sufficient for us to be able to develop a solution that would be robust enough to last for the entire race.”

Singapore follows the Austrian, Italian and last weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia in being declared a heat-hazard race this year.