Pushing his SF-25 to the limit, in the closing stages of the Singapore Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton quickly lost all of that time and eventually crossed the line in seventh place, mere tenths of a second of arch-rival Fernando Alonso, only to drop behind him due to a post-race penalty.
But what caused Hamilton’s sudden drop of pace, which saw him lose over 40 seconds in the final couple of laps?
Hamilton told skysports.com: “It was an OK race. I didn’t get a great start. Very difficult to overtake and I was stuck in position.
“I was catching Kimi [Antonelli] and then the brakes gave up. You saw the spark coming off the left front. I had to back off to cool them down and when I cooled them down they came back a bit, but still not fully there.”
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But what saw Hamilton drop behind Alonso post-race was the fact that he had exceeded track limits, so much so that the Aston Martin driver was livid with not winning the place on the road.
On his team radio, Alonso said: “I cannot f****** believe it. I mean, I cannot f****** believe it. I cannot f****** believe it. Is it safe to drive with no brakes?”
The Stewards assessed the track limits violations and subsequently slapped Hamilton with a five-second time penalty, which dropped him to behind the Spaniard.
In the report, the Stewards deemed: “During the hearing, the driver confirmed that he left the track at several occasions. He was trying to manage a brakes issue situation. This being said, after further investigation, and in accordance with the list of exemptions foreseen in the Driving Standards Guidelines, the Stewards considered that this was not a justifiable reason.”
After pushing McLaren all the way to the final race last season, 2025 was deemed Maranello’s best chance of a championship win since 2008, but it has looked ever further away from their reach, confirmed in Singapore by McLaren’s title triumph, while the two red cars trundled around in sixth and eighth.
The only team of the big four not to have won a race in 2025 and looking likely to slip to fourth in the standings in a matter of races, the famous Italian team are now under enormous pressure to make 2026 count, or else any faith renewed by their surprise title pursuit will have diminished.
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