Oscar Piastri finishes fifth in Singapore: the late Hamilton pass could not hide McLaren’s pace gap

Illustrative McLaren display photograph by yanzheng xia / Unsplash; not an image from the 2026 Singapore Grand Prix.

Oscar Piastri finished fifth in the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday, 11 October 2026, 49.644 seconds behind winner Max Verstappen. Starting sixth, the McLaren driver gained one place by passing Lewis Hamilton late in the 62-lap race. That bare result misses the harder part of his afternoon: a slow front-right puncture forced an extra stop, and the closing pass salvaged points without disguising McLaren’s deficit to the podium contenders.

McLaren’s long first stint created an opening

Piastri and team-mate Lando Norris started sixth and fifth on soft tyres and held those places through the early phase. Hamilton, ahead of them in third, began on mediums but struggled enough to pit on lap 18. McLaren extended both opening stints, leaving its cars temporarily second and third while the earlier stoppers cycled through. The hope was that a Safety Car might reduce the cost of stopping later; it was a reasonable option, not a guaranteed route to the podium.

Norris stopped on lap 32 and Piastri on lap 33, each switching to mediums. They returned to fifth and sixth, with fresher tyres that might have helped them pressure the cars ahead. Then a Virtual Safety Car on lap 39 let Charles Leclerc and Kimi Antonelli stop at a smaller time cost. McLaren’s planned tyre advantage was worth less once those rivals had fresh rubber too. This matters because it separates a strategic opportunity that disappeared from a simple claim that McLaren threw away a podium.

The second stop changed Piastri’s race

McLaren says Piastri picked up a slow puncture in the front-right tyre and had to stop again on lap 41, returning on used softs. He kept sixth because the midfield was far enough behind, but the extra stop left him managing tyre and brake temperatures instead of chasing the podium group. A puncture is an interruption, not proof that the original plan would have beaten Antonelli or Leclerc.

The official classification shows why that distinction is important. Verstappen won from Leclerc by 7.335 seconds; Antonelli was third, 24.573 seconds back. Norris finished fourth at +40.506 seconds and Piastri fifth at +49.644. Even the leading McLaren was more than 15 seconds behind the final podium place. The team gained points from both cars, but neither had demonstrated winning pace at Marina Bay.

Hamilton gave Piastri a final target

Hamilton stayed out rather than making a second stop and his tyres faded late. Antonelli moved ahead of him, then Norris took fourth on lap 55. Piastri was still around 11 seconds back, according to McLaren’s account, but closed as Hamilton’s grip fell away. Norris offered to slow Hamilton to help his team-mate; the strategist judged that Piastri could close without it. He caught the Ferrari and completed the pass into Turn 16 on the penultimate lap.

That move was earned and useful: fifth gave Piastri ten championship points and left Hamilton sixth, 3.544 seconds behind him. It was also a pass on a driver struggling on older tyres, not evidence that McLaren could have matched Verstappen, Leclerc or Antonelli over a full race. The late recovery should be credited without inflating what it says about the car.

What Singapore leaves McLaren to solve

The counterargument is that the puncture and Virtual Safety Car cost Piastri a better result. Both clearly limited his options. Yet McLaren’s own report says the car did not have the pace to challenge the front runners, and Piastri described fifth as the maximum he thought possible. A clean run might have changed the gap or the fight with Norris and Hamilton; the available evidence does not establish a lost podium.

For Piastri, Singapore was a controlled recovery after an untidy Saturday Sprint, when the McLarens collided. For the team, the more durable lesson is pace: strategy can create chances, but it cannot reliably replace speed through a full race distance. The next round is the United States Grand Prix on 23–25 October. Before then, the most useful question is not whether the last-lap pass looked dramatic; it is whether McLaren can give both drivers a car that reaches the podium fight earlier. For an earlier example of a McLaren weekend undone by small errors, read our Azerbaijan Grand Prix analysis.