09–11 OCT · MARINA BAY · ROUND 17
Weekend previewSingapore Grand Prix 2026 predictions
Singapore hosts its first sprint weekend. One practice session has to answer every question before the competitive running starts.
Weekend schedule
SINGAPORE TIME- Practice 1
- Fri 9 Oct, 16:30 GMT+8
- Sprint Qualifying
- Fri 9 Oct, 20:30 GMT+8
- Sprint
- Sat 10 Oct, 17:00 GMT+8
- Qualifying
- Sat 10 Oct, 21:00 GMT+8
- Grand Prix
- Sun 11 Oct, 20:00 GMT+8
First Singapore sprint
One hour of practice before the first pick locks
Marina Bay has never hosted the sprint format. Friday has one practice session, followed by Sprint Qualifying that evening. The usual second and third practice sessions are replaced by competitive running.
That makes the first hour unusually valuable. Teams have to establish ride height, cooling and tyre behaviour on a street circuit that gains grip throughout the weekend, then commit before they have a second long-run sample. How sprint weekends work.
01 · FRIDAY
Practice 1
Only setup and long-run sample
02 · FRIDAY
Sprint Qualifying
First competitive classification
03 · SATURDAY
Sprint
Race-pace evidence
04 · SATURDAY
Qualifying
Grand Prix grid
05 · SUNDAY
Grand Prix
62 laps
What matters at Marina Bay
Track position, traction and mistake-free laps. Passing remains hard, so qualifying carries more weight here than at Baku or Sepang.
- km circuit
- 4.927
- race laps
- 62
- turns
- 19
- local start
- 20:00
Low-speed traction
Drive out of the slow corners
The lap repeatedly asks the rear tyres to find grip beside a wall. Poor traction costs time all the way down the next straight.
Kerb and bump control
How settled the car stays over the street surface
A nervous car forces a driver to leave margin. That margin adds up across a long lap with little run-off.
Cooling
Brake, power-unit and cockpit temperatures
The race starts at night, but the heat and humidity remain. Opening bodywork for cooling costs performance.
Driver accuracy
Missed apexes and wall contact late in a run
Concentration matters across a race that often approaches two hours. Small errors have no run-off to absorb them.
Tyre choice
Singapore gets the softest three tyres
C1
Not used at Singapore
C2
Not used at Singapore
C3
hard
C4
medium
C5
soft
Pirelli selected C3, C4 and C5, the same softest trio used at Baku. Marina Bay is dominated by traction and low-speed grip, while the street surface evolves as rubber goes down.
The heat can push the rear tyres towards overheating even when wear is manageable. Watch the Sprint for degradation, but remember that the Grand Prix runs later and over a much longer distance. Pirelli’s selection (opens in a new tab).
Saturday
The Sprint is the only race-pace evidence before qualifying
The Sprint comes four hours before Grand Prix Qualifying. It shows tyre behaviour, traffic pace and who can keep the car out of the walls, but it does not set Sunday’s grid.
Use the Sprint to update the back of your Grand Prix Top 5. Keep qualifying weighted heavily: Marina Bay still rewards track position, even when one driver looked quicker over the short race.
Pick order
- 1. Sprint Qualifying Top 5
- 2. Sprint Top 5
- 3. Grand Prix Qualifying Top 5
- 4. Grand Prix Top 5
Championship standings
After 12 rounds, Kimi Antonelli leads the drivers’ table by 59 points from George Russell. The Italian Grand Prix, the Madrid Grand Prix, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and the Bahrain Grand Prix still have to be scored, so this table will change before Singapore.
View full 2026 standingsDrivers
AFTER 12 ROUNDS- 1Kimi Antonelli242 PTS
- 2George Russell183 PTS
- 3Lewis Hamilton183 PTS
- 4Lando Norris159 PTS
- 5Charles Leclerc155 PTS
- 6Max Verstappen112 PTS
Scored through round 12, updated 23 AUG 2026.
Before you lock your Top 5
Use FP1 for car behaviour
Look for traction, kerb control and cooling trouble. There is no later practice session to correct a weak baseline.
Keep the two qualifying sessions separate
Sprint Qualifying sets the Sprint grid. Saturday qualifying sets the Grand Prix grid.
Let the Sprint move close calls
It is the best long-run evidence available, especially for the final two places in a Grand Prix Top 5.
Protect track position
Passing is difficult. A quick driver starting deep in the field carries more recovery risk here than at Sepang.
Common questions
Is the 2026 Singapore Grand Prix a sprint weekend?
Yes. Singapore hosts its first Formula 1 sprint weekend in 2026. Sprint Qualifying follows the only practice session on Friday, the Sprint and Grand Prix Qualifying run on Saturday, and the Grand Prix is on Sunday.
When is the 2026 Singapore Grand Prix?
The weekend runs from 9 to 11 October 2026 at Marina Bay. The Sprint starts at 17:00 Singapore time on Saturday and the 62-lap Grand Prix starts at 20:00 on Sunday.
How many practice sessions are there in Singapore?
One. Practice 1 runs on Friday before Sprint Qualifying. There is no second or third practice session on a sprint weekend.
How are Singapore Grand Prix predictions scored?
Each session scores separately. An exact Top 5 position earns 5 points, one position away earns 3, and selecting a driver who finishes elsewhere in the actual Top 5 earns 1 point.
Make your Singapore picks
Choose five drivers for qualifying and five for the race. You can change them until each session locks.