Verstappen’s Singapore Saturday and the McLaren sprint clash: Andrew Benson’s reading of the weekend

Saturday 10 October 2026 in Singapore told two opposite stories. Red Bull’s lead driver left the day with a sprint victory in tricky wet conditions and pole position for the grand prix, while McLaren watched their two cars tangle on the final lap of the sprint and walked away with a single point. The contrast frames the analysis by Andrew Benson for BBC Sport: Verstappen is gathering real momentum, and the world champions are struggling to keep their own house in order.

A front-row lockout of Ferrari ambition

Verstappen’s pole did not come easily. Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton line up directly behind him in their Ferraris, and both drivers believed a pole lap had been within reach. That leaves the Dutchman, preparing for his 250th grand prix start, with two motivated rivals in his mirrors for the grand prix on Sunday 11 October.

This reading reflects the picture on the evening of the sprint. The BBC analysis it draws on was published before the grand prix, and the result of that race is not covered here.

The weak point is the launch. Red Bull have been inconsistent off the line, and Verstappen surrendered the lead at the start both in Malaysia the weekend before and again in the Singapore sprint. Benson notes that the street circuit makes passing difficult, so a slow getaway would be harder to repair than it was on the way to his first win of the season.

How the comeback has been built

That breakthrough victory, at the Bahrain Grand Prix staged in Malaysia, capped a run that had been building for weeks. Benson credits steady development work at Red Bull, which has given Verstappen a car whose behaviour he can predict and therefore push to the limit.

Benson suggests Azerbaijan might well have been a victory without those qualifying issues. Yet the title arithmetic remains brutal, and he dismisses any realistic prospect of a turnaround.

The 2025 precedent shows what he can do with a competitive car, but the 2026 gap is larger still. The more immediate threat from his revival lands elsewhere.

A last-lap gamble that cost McLaren eight points

Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris were running fourth and fifth in the sprint when Norris tried to pass his team-mate at Turn Five. Benson calls it an unusual overtaking spot and argues that, for the team, the move carried risk with no reward, since swapping positions would not have changed McLaren’s combined haul.

1. Final lap Norris dives down the inside at Turn Five; the cars touch and spin together.
2. Moments later Piastri ends up in the barriers and retires, while Norris drops to eighth. A potential nine points shrinks to one.
3. Hearing Piastri says he did not anticipate a move there and tried to give room; Norris contends the rules allowed him to attempt the pass.
4. Verdict The stewards decide against any action, ruling that both drivers contributed.

The episode is not isolated. The pair have had several run-ins over the past two seasons, most notably during the 2025 fight for the drivers’ title.

Red Bull now in McLaren’s rear-view mirror

The timing hurts. McLaren enjoyed a strong summer, with Norris winning back-to-back in Hungary and the Netherlands and losing likely victory in Madrid only because of when a virtual safety car fell. Since then the champions have faded, arriving in Singapore third in the constructors’ standings and just 11 points ahead of Red Bull. Earlier coverage of tensions between Piastri and Norris showed how long this rivalry has simmered.

Team principal Andrea Stella made his disappointment plain. He said it was far from the first time he had spoken to his drivers about putting the team first, and that both had been reminded of that principle after the sprint.

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