Kimi Antonelli One Win From F1 Title After Max Verstappen Dominates Singapore Grand Prix

Antonelli Closes On History As Verstappen Wins Under The Lights

Kimi Antonelli moved to the brink of becoming Formula 1's youngest ever world champion on Sunday, finishing third at the Singapore Grand Prix — a result that could see him wrap up the title at the very next round in Austin on October 23-25.

Max Verstappen took a dominant victory at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, adding to his win earlier this month in Malaysia with a maximum-points haul across the Sprint weekend. But the Red Bull driver, unlike last year, is too far back to mount a championship charge — a reality that left Antonelli relieved.

"It Would Be Very Scary" — Antonelli On Verstappen

Asked whether he was glad Verstappen is not part of this year's title fight, Antonelli told Sky Sports F1: "It would be very scary!"

"All in all I feel like we are doing a great job. At the end, you look at the season, and we have always been there," he said. "Obviously we have had a great car and now we are trying to understand this new package. I'm very proud of the team this weekend because we pushed through the difficulties and started to see life at the end of the tunnel. It's just a matter of time. Now we go to Austin, a normal weekend, where we can hopefully do a lot of changes and understand the package more."

The Italian had another damage-limitation weekend in Singapore but still reached the podium in third after a sharp Mercedes strategy call gave him fresh soft tyres, allowing him to overtake McLaren's Lando Norris and Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton late on. It was an unexpected result given that the new upgrades Mercedes introduced in Malaysia have not delivered the major performance gain the team had expected.

The Title Maths

Antonelli, 20, leads Mercedes team-mate George Russell by 102 points and Ferrari's Hamilton by 111. With six meetings remaining and 150 points still available, he will take the title if he wins in Austin and Russell finishes ninth or lower and Hamilton fifth or lower.

Equally, he could wrap things up at the Circuit of the Americas if he simply outscores Russell by 23 points and Hamilton by 14 points. Victory would also see him break Sebastian Vettel's record as F1's youngest world champion.

When asked whether he dared to dream that his childhood ambition of becoming champion was within reach, he acknowledged it with a smile. "For sure," he said. "I know it's very close, I know it's there but I just need to make sure that I keep doing the best I can. The mindset is always the same, to go out there and win and perform the best way I can."

He added: "This weekend I haven't particularly driven that well. I felt like I could have done a better job but I feel confident that a week to reset and I'm really looking forward to being back in Austin. But at the end of the day, if I don't do my job well, then the result won't come. So in order to achieve what I want, I need to perform, as simple as that."

Wolff: Probability Of Antonelli Winning 'Almost 100 Per Cent'

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff is usually cautious with his expectations, but even he conceded that Antonelli is almost certainly going to win the title.

"You look at the numbers and ask the probability of him winning, and it's probably almost 100 per cent. But it's motor racing, you can break down, you can have accidents, and then things could start to stress," he told Sky Sports F1. "So, I think we need to look at it race by race, make sure that we are continuing to score the points, and eventually hopefully it's going to come towards him."

Verstappen Wins Despite Radio Silence

Red Bull's recent resurgence appears to have ended Mercedes' large dominance over the season, although Verstappen's win in Singapore was far from straightforward — he was unable to talk to his team for the whole race. Verstappen could hear his engineer Gianpiero Lambiase, but not the other way around.

"Maybe he was happy that it was not working! I couldn't really say anything. He did try at one point to ask me a few things in code, and I think he understood well what I meant or did not do," said Verstappen. "But it's never nice. I've been having difficulty with my radio already the whole season, and this weekend has been particularly bad."

The biggest threat to Verstappen's win came at the start from Charles Leclerc, as Red Bull have been poor off the line throughout 2026. However, Verstappen got a good enough launch to move to the inside and pinch Leclerc, forcing the Ferrari driver to brake early and back out of the move.

"The start was critical, so that was just good enough. Something was not particularly right at the start, so I need to understand what went wrong there," he said. "Before releasing the clutch, it didn't feel good. But it was just good enough. Then we had a few laps with some deployment issues, so that's where Charles almost got me actually into Turn 7.

"Once we had cleared the deployment problems, it was fine. The car was really good on the tyres. I could really manage them well. But to be honest, I think it was one of the first times that I've driven in clean air here in Singapore in the race, so I guess that's also nice.

"It's been just a fantastic weekend for us. I mean, we were flying on the soft, we were okay on the medium, and then of course with the VSC, I think it was right what Charles did with pitting and going back on a soft tyre. But, we just had it under control and of course, really happy to win here."

Hamilton Apologises To Ferrari For Costly VSC Call

Hamilton, who finished sixth, issued an apology to his Ferrari team after his decision not to pit under the virtual safety car proved costly, leaving him vulnerable on worn tyres at the death, where he was passed by three rivals.

He was unwell after the race and was given leave to miss his post-race media duties, but Ferrari issued a comment from the British driver. "A painful lesson today but I take full responsibility for the decisions I made," Hamilton said. "Not every call will work out and I can accept getting it wrong but I'm sorry for the team for the points we lost today."

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur made it clear the team had not been at fault. "We were P2, P3 on track, we called two of our guys to pit behind the VSC, one of our guys said: 'No I prefer to stay on track', or he missed pit entry. Don't blame the team," he noted.

What's Next

Formula 1 next heads to The Americas for another triple header, with the United States Grand Prix in Austin up first on October 23-25, live on Sky Sports F1. Verstappen, who has now won at every track on the calendar apart from Madrid, will be looking to keep his late-season momentum going, while all eyes will be on whether Antonelli can seal the championship in Texas.