PUBLISHED ONOctober 12, 2026 3:11 PMBYShafiq ApandiSeventeen editions, 17 starts, four victories and seven podiums.
No driver has been a more constant presence at the Formula 1 Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix than Lewis Hamilton, the only man to have raced in every one since the sport's first night race in 2008.
So when the Ferrari driver sat second behind Max Verstappen with 17 laps to go on Sunday (Oct 11), an eighth podium at the Marina Bay Street Circuit was within sight for the 41-year-old.
Instead, a strategy gamble that helped create the race's most dramatic closing laps ultimately backfired. The seven-time world champion crossed the line sixth, on tyres that had done 44 laps, and came on the team radio with an apology as he drove back to the pits.
"Sorry boys, I let you down today with that strategy. My call and I lost us valuable points. I'll try and make up for it in the next one. Great job with the pit stop, though," he said.
Minutes later, on a hot and humid night in a race declared a heat hazard for the second year running, the Briton was crouched in parc ferme as he waited behind other drivers to be weighed.
Ferrari said he was seen by the FIA medical team at the track and given permission to miss the post-race interviews in the media pen.
It was not the first time Marina Bay had taken such a toll on him. In 2024, when he also started third and finished sixth, Hamilton was excused from his media duties after what his then team boss Toto Wolff called "borderline heatstroke".
This time, his only words after leaving the car came in a statement released later by Scuderia Ferrari.
"A painful lesson today, but I take full responsibility for the decisions I made," he said.
"Not every call will work out, and I can accept getting it wrong but I'm sorry for the team for the points we lost today."
It was a bruising end to a weekend in which Hamilton had been among the quickest drivers at Marina Bay.
In the rain on Saturday, he changed his start procedure on the grid, dived down the inside at the first corner and chased Verstappen all the way home to finish second in Singapore's first sprint race, which saw a record nine retirements.
"I love driving this track in the rain," he said.
"As soon as the heavens opened, I was like, 'This is a great day.'"
Hours later, he set the pace in the first two segments of qualifying and looked the favourite for pole position, before ending up third, 0.123sec behind Verstappen.
Even Mercedes boss Toto Wolff had not expected his team to beat him on race day. He told Sky Sports: "We didn't expect to be ahead of Lewis because they were so fast."
The race began to get away from Hamilton before the lights went out. With Verstappen and teammate Charles Leclerc ahead of him on soft tyres, which are quicker but wear out sooner, he gambled on the slower, more durable mediums in the hope of stopping only once.
Ferrari had not run that tyre in the weekend's only practice session. Within 17 laps, Hamilton was 6.44sec behind Leclerc, and the team hauled him in on Lap 18 for a set of softs that had to survive the remaining 44 laps.
His chance to reset came on Lap 39, when a stopped car brought out the virtual safety car. It forces every driver to slow down and makes a tyre change about 10sec cheaper than usual.
Ferrari called both cars in. Leclerc dived into the pit lane. Hamilton sailed past the entrance.
"The team called me in but I missed the entry," he said.
"After that, I decided to stay out and try to hold track position to the end."
For a brief spell, the decision appeared inspired. Hamilton inherited second place, with fresher rivals lining up behind him and a podium seemingly within his grasp.
Then his tyres faded and the field closed in.
Leclerc swept past on Lap 46. Eight laps later, reigning world champion Lando Norris lunged at the first corner, Hamilton ran wide across the run-off area and championship leader Kimi Antonelli pounced, passing the McLaren and then the Ferrari at Turn 16. Norris followed him through.
Behind them, Oscar Piastri was eating into a 9.9sec gap at up to three seconds a lap. With the chequered flag almost in sight, the Australian went through at Turn 16 as well.
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur said the missed pit entry "probably cost him the opportunity to fight for the podium".
The damage went beyond one result. Antonelli, the 20-year-old who took over Hamilton's seat at Mercedes, left Singapore 102 points clear and could seal the title at the United States Grand Prix in Austin on Oct 25.
Hamilton remains third in the standings on 229 points, nine behind Antonelli's teammate George Russell. But Verstappen, winner of the last two races, is now just eight points behind him with six races left.
None of it changes what Hamilton has built here. He was 23 and driving for McLaren when he finished third in the first night race in 2008, and he won from pole position a year later.
Three more victories followed with Mercedes: in 2014, when the win put him in the championship lead; in 2017, in the first Singapore race run in the wet; and in 2018, after a pole lap that set a track record. Only Sebastian Vettel, with five wins, has more.
"I love the night races," Hamilton said earlier on Thursday to the media, recalling how he had tested the circuit on McLaren's simulator before that first race.
His pull has not faded either. Among the celebrities spotted in the paddock was socialite Kim Kardashian, who was in Singapore to support her partner.
Outside the circuit, before the race stood Olivia Chee, 15, who has followed him since her first F1 race in 2018, the year of his last win here. She was seven then and asked her father whom to support.
"He said Hamilton and I asked, why? And he said, because he always wins," she said.
Asked how long her idol would keep racing, the teenager said: "He's never gonna retire. He's gonna be racing in heaven, bro."
She also had a message for him: "Hamilton, please remember who you are!"
