The bright lights of Marina Bay illuminated another dramatic chapter in the 2025 Formula 1 season as the Singapore Grand Prix delivered a weekend packed with tension, controversy, and plenty of talking points up and down the grid. From rookie heroics to intra-team clashes, and strategic gambles gone awry, the event kept fans and teams alike on the edge of their seats.
Let’s start with the McLaren camp, where the opening lap saw sparks—literally and figuratively—between teammates Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. The duo’s contact at Turn 3 was the flashpoint of the race, with Norris squeezing down the inside and making contact with Piastri. The incident left Norris with a cracked front wing and forced a trip back to the garage, though he managed to recover and finish third, while Piastri crossed the line in fourth. The stewards reviewed the clash but ultimately took no further action, leaving fans to debate the move’s fairness. According to a poll conducted by PlanetF1.com, 48% of nearly 2,000 fans felt Norris’s move was acceptable, 35% said it was not, and 17% chalked it up to a racing incident—a split verdict if there ever was one.
Piastri, reflecting on the incident after the race, was philosophical: "I thought in the moment, you know, obviously, it’s the first lap, tensions are high… We’re obviously encouraged to share our views on what happened, and I did that, and I’m sure we’ll discuss," he said. "Could things have been better at certain points? Yes, but ultimately, it’s a learning process with the whole team." Norris, for his part, emphasized McLaren’s team-first mentality: "McLaren just wants to win every race it can, no matter who it is… as a team, you know, we’re very confident and proud that we’re doing things the correct way and the right way."
That incident wasn’t the only drama for McLaren. Free Practice 2 had already seen Lando Norris involved in a pit lane collision with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, damaging his car and adding to the weekend’s challenges. Despite these setbacks, McLaren left Singapore with valuable points and a World Championship battle that’s heating up—Piastri’s lead over Norris now stands at just 22 points as the circus heads to Austin later in October.
Oscar Piastri’s weekend was a rollercoaster. He topped the timesheets in FP2 with a blistering 1:30.713, edging out Isack Hadjar and Max Verstappen. The session itself was a stop-start affair, with multiple red flags triggered by George Russell’s crash at Turn 16 and Liam Lawson’s wall-banging exit near the pit entry. Rookies Kimi Antonelli and Gabriel Bortoleto also had their moments, running off into the escape areas as they got to grips with the tricky street circuit. Norris, ever the perfectionist, voiced frustration after practice, calling himself a "slow driver"—a comment that belied the pace he would later show in the race.
Elsewhere in the paddock, Haas celebrated a breakthrough as Ollie Bearman brought home the team’s first points since Zandvoort, finishing ninth. Bearman started in the top 10 after a strong qualifying performance—his first Q3 appearance since Silverstone. The Briton survived a tangle with Isack Hadjar at the start, lost out to Fernando Alonso, but managed to fend off a charging Nico Hulkenberg in the opening stint. Post-race, Bearman was beaming: "Really happy. After Lap 1, a bit of an incident, dropped down to P10. Then I was under a lot of threat from Nico [Hulkenberg] behind who was very fast. Generally, on that first stint I was struggling a lot with car balance. We made a good step with the second [stint] and actually we were looking on for P8 because of Alonso’s slow stop. Unfortunately, I lost a position to him, he seemed a bit quicker than us today but happy to score points."
Bearman’s points haul couldn’t have come at a better time for Haas, who now sit just nine points behind Kick Sauber in the fight for eighth in the Constructors’ standings—a battle that could mean a significant boost in prize money. "On a tough track we executed a great weekend," Bearman concluded, summing up the team’s relief and optimism.
Contrasting fortunes befell Esteban Ocon, who finished a frustrating 18th, a lap down. A seatbelt issue in qualifying consigned him to a Q1 exit, and a long first stint in the race left him unable to capitalize on strategy. "It was always going to be a tough challenge but we gained positions at the start and on the first few laps, so we were on for catching Lance [Stroll] at some stage," Ocon explained. "When we boxed, we lost out on everything and couldn’t recover because of the DRS train in front. That was it really, I think we turn the page on this one."
Ferrari’s weekend was one to forget. F1 analyst Peter Windsor didn’t mince words: "Ferrari were nowhere. Charles got the jump on Lewis out of the first corner, which would have annoyed Lewis." Charles Leclerc finished sixth, while Lewis Hamilton, after briefly overtaking Kimi Antonelli for fifth, suffered a front-left brake failure in the closing laps. Forced to limp home, Hamilton ultimately finished eighth after a post-race penalty. Team principal Frédéric Vasseur acknowledged the setback, noting that brake issues hampered what could have been a stronger finish for the seven-time world champion.
Amid all the chaos, Alpine’s Franco Colapinto quietly turned heads with a gutsy drive. Starting 16th, the Argentine rookie muscled his way past Gabriel Bortoleto and Lance Stroll at the start and even held off Yuki Tsunoda to reach 13th during the race. A controversial early pit stop for medium tires on lap 15 saw Colapinto fade in the closing laps, eventually finishing where he started in 16th. "We tried our best to manage the tires but with a lot of degradation […] it made it difficult to hold off cars with fresher tires in the closing laps," Colapinto said. "It was not what we wanted but we just have to keep pushing and better results will come."
Alpine’s Managing Director Steve Nielsen praised Colapinto’s efforts, highlighting his ability to manage a long stint and gain ground on more experienced rivals. Impressively, this marked the fourth time in five races that Colapinto outperformed teammate Pierre Gasly, narrowing their head-to-head to 6-5 in Gasly’s favor—no small feat considering the Frenchman’s 150-race advantage. Colapinto’s maturity and resilience have not gone unnoticed, especially as Alpine prepares to switch to Mercedes engines in 2026—a transition where Colapinto’s prior experience with Mercedes power units could prove invaluable.
As the Singapore Grand Prix weekend drew to a close, the championship picture tightened, rivalries simmered, and rookies continued to make their mark. With Austin looming, the only certainty is that the drama is far from over—and the twists and turns of this F1 season are only just beginning.
