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Last year’s winner: Lando Norris in his McLaren
Overtakes completed last year: 62 (by contrast, there were two on-track overtakes at this year’s Monaco Grand Prix)
Most wins: Sebastian Vettel (five)
Lap record: 1m 34.486s, Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo in his Racing Bull in 2024
Average time lost for a pit stop: 29.1 seconds
Track marshals recover the crashed Renault of Nelson Piquet jnr during the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.Credit: Reuters
Fun fact: Marina Bay first held the Singapore F1 Grand Prix in 2008 and that race was shrouded in controversy when Fernando Alonso won in his Renault (now Alpine).
It’s infamously known for “Crashgate” because Alonso’s teammate, Nelson Piquet jnr, deliberately crashed during the race to hand the two-time world champion an on-track advantage.
On lap 15, Piquet jnr (the son of the three-time world champion), crashed into a wall at turn 17. It was roughly around the expected pit window time but Alonso, who’d started from 15th and had already made a pit stop, was benefited massively – surging to the race lead. By contrast, Ferrari star Felipe Massa had a nightmare in the pits and ultimately finished 13th. He would go on to lose the drivers’ title that year to Lewis Hamilton by just a point, and later took legal action.
When Piquet jnr was dropped from Renault in 2009, he said he’d been asked by his team in Singapore to crash to improve the race situation for Alonso. Conspiracy charges stemmed from an FIA race fixing investigation and Renault boss Flavio Briatore and his director of engineering Pat Symonds left the team. Briatore returned to the team in 2024.
