Lewis Hamilton won the Singapore Grand Prix from the pole to earn his 69th career Formula One victory, his series-leading seventh this season and his second in a row. Hamilton beat Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by 8.961 seconds to take his fourth victory at Marina Bay, equaling the record of Singapore Grand Prix wins held by Scuderia Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel.
Hamilton’s win, combined with Vettel’s third-place finish, allowed Hamilton to extend his lead in the championship standings to 40 points over Vettel, his closest pursuer.
Tire degradation was a key component of the Singapore Grand Prix, with the hypersoft delivering the most speed, but only for a short period of time before becoming too worn to bring any more performance. The Yellow soft – the hardest tire of the three compounds Pirelli brought to Singapore – had almost no degradation. The ultrasoft served as the happy medium between the hypersoft and soft.
"I’m so excited. I came here knowing that Singapore is a hard one for us. But I’m always optimistic, thinking that if we’re really diligent and do our work, we can create some chances", said Hamilton.
"Then Friday was already a good day for us. Saturday didn’t start off well, but then all of the sudden that special lap came in. Knowing that we would start on pole, I knew that it was a great opportunity for us to capitalise on. I had a great start and from then I was able to manage it. When I hit the traffic, I was just mindful not to take any risks. When you start to get closer to another car, you start losing grip and start sliding around more, so there’s a higher chance of mistakes.
"If you’re lucky you catch the cars at the right point and they let you by so you don’t lose any time, but today I always caught them at an unfortunate point. So when Max was right behind, I had to go on the defensive, and I thought to myself “Bro, you’re not getting by – not today!” It was physically such a demanding race, so I’m relieved that it’s over now – it felt like such a long night, but I’m super grateful for the result."
