Even as residents battled a worsening haze, Singapore came alive for the night race at Marina Bay that was the 2026 Formula 1 Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix over the Oct 9-11 weekend.
Attendance reached 301,294, the second-highest on record and the highest since the 2023 track change, although the haze pushed central Singapore’s 24-hour PSI to 192 on Friday.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen led every lap of Sunday’s Singapore Grand Prix from pole for his first win at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, on his 250th Grand Prix start. Crowd favourite Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finished second, 7.335 seconds behind.
Leclerc ran within 0.6 seconds of Verstappen early on, but the gap grew, and Verstappen led by 17.9 seconds on lap 28 as other drivers made their stops.
Presenting the winner’s trophy – which came in a special Louis Vuitton Trunk – to Verstappen was Singapore’s very own winner – sprint queen Shanti Pereira.
While the cars were whizzing by, the crowds were making the most of a weekend also filled with top class entertainment and celebrities.
Media personality and socialite Kim Kardashian was on hand to cheer her boyfriend Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) who came in sixth, and drew as many adoring fans as did the celebrity performers.
The performers included singer-songwriter Lana Del Rey, who sang White Feather Hawk Tail Deer Hunter – one of the singles from her upcoming tenth album, Stove. Music icon Janet Jackson returned to Singapore after several years with a rendition of Together Again in a tribute to her brother Michael.
Rock band The Killers belted out staples like Somebody Told Me and Mr Brightside, and Swedish pop singer Zara Larsson were other crowd pullers. K-pop boy band CORTIS also performed – filling the stage with explosive energy, performing a total of 15 songs over 50 minutes.
The F1 next year will have a lot to live up to!
