🇸🇬 Report: 2026 Singapore Grand Prix

A weekend of highs and lows with two tough retirements for Franco

Published

13 Oct 2026

Est. reading time

3 min

🇸🇬 Singapore under the night lights delivered exactly what it always promises: heat, humidity, Safety Cars and DRAMA

Franco arrived at Marina Bay looking for points after a tough weekend in Malaysia. The result wasn’t what we hoped for, but the data from the weekend tells a more complete story.

And as if the circuit didn’t already have enough challenges, the rain played its part too. Before Saturday’s Sprint, a downpour soaked the track and delayed the start by almost half an hour, while Sunday’s qualifying was also pushed back due to the overrun from the previous session and then saw a few interruptions of its own.

Race results

🥇 P1: Max Verstappen (Red Bull) 🥈 P2: Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) 🥉 P3: Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) 🇫🇷 Pierre Gasly: P11 🇦🇷 Franco Colapinto: DNF (driveline problem)

📸 Best photos from the weekend

Franco’s progression at Marina Bay

At one of the most technical and demanding circuits on the calendar, the numbers tell the real story of the weekend.

FP1: Franco finished P18 on lap times, but the top speed data showed real potential from the very start. The Marina Bay Circuit is notoriously difficult to learn in a single practice session with the 2026 car.

Sprint Qualifying: A session that showed real progress. Franco made it through to SQ2, proving the team had found pace during the night. He was knocked out in SQ2 when RUS displaced him in the final minutes, finishing P11 with a lap of 1:32 on softs.

Sprint: The toughest moment of the weekend came early. With rain and mixed conditions, the start was delayed by almost half an hour as a downpour soaked the track and teams sheltered their cars on the grid. When racing finally got underway on intermediates, Franco retired on lap 4 with a mechanical problem at Turn 14, alongside HAD and RUS, who also went out before time. A result that didn’t reflect the pace he had shown.

Qualifying: Franco reached Q2 again but clipped the wall on his final lap, bringing his session to a premature end. He finished P16, behind BOR, with an incomplete lap that left potential on the table. In Q1, his sector times placed him P11, P14, and P13, which would have been enough to contend for a higher position in Q2.

Race: The weekend ended differently to how we’d hoped when Franco suffered a driveline problem on lap 31, forcing him to retire from a position that was giving him real options for points. Up to that point he had completed a clean and disciplined race, making life very difficult for HAD who was behind him.

🏁 The race

Franco started from P15 after the qualifying incident. In the opening laps he ran a clean race, gaining positions and gathering data in extreme heat.

Everything changed on lap 31 when a driveline problem left him with no option. He had to retire from a position that would have given him a genuine shot at points with the strategy the team had in place.

“It was a tough weekend,” Franco said after the race. “We had a problem with the car that took us out when we were in a good position to score. It’s frustrating because the pace was there.”

🩵 But we keep going

It’s not the result that Franco’s work or the team’s effort deserved. But there are races left and the FranClub43 will be there at every single one, supporting Franco the whole way. See you in Austin from the 23rd of October.

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