Singapore Grand Prix

Marina Bay Track Guide

At over five kilometers long, the Marina Bay Street Circuit is one of the longest circuits on the calendar, with 23 corners making up the circuit.

Coming onto the home straight with DRS, turn 1 is a deceivingly slow left-hander, quickly followed by a kink to the right. Completing the ‘S’ shape is turn 3, a tight bend to the left where speeds drop well under 100 km/h.

A small straight heads into another deceivingly slow corner, followed by the second DRS zone. The back straight is split up by a kink to the right which ends the DRS zone, followed by a 90-degree left-hander in turn 7.

Three more 90-degree corners follow, with turn 11 and 12 being a quick left-right combination, followed by a run-up to the very slow bend at T13. A long run-up to T14, which is a mirrored T13. Then, a sequence of blind corners, with the ‘S’ followed by a double chicane in the final sector. Finally, a double kink to the left, and you’re back onto the home straight with DRS.

Race history

Although there have only been 11 Singapore Grand Prix, they tend to be quite spectacular. Every single race to date has featured a Safety Car - 18 in total in 11 races!

The first-ever race in Singapore was also the first-ever night race in Formula 1 history. Alonso won the race in controversial fashion, with teammate Nelson Piquet Jr. allegedly sacrificing his car so Alonso could win.

Alonso won again in 2010 for Ferrari in one of the best F1 races in the modern era. Alonso had a truly magnificent battle with Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel, who threw everything he had at the Spaniard but couldn’t get past, as the two-time champion defended his lead with his life.

Since 2010, Vettel and Hamilton have won nine of the 10 races, with only Nico Rosberg winning in 2016 to break the streak. Vettel won the last edition in 2019, despite Ferrari being heavy underdogs heading into the weekend.

When is the 2020 Singapore Grand Prix?

On September 17th the first press conferences are scheduled and on Friday, the drivers will take place in their cars to drive in free practice. FP1 is set to start on September 18th at 9:30 UK time, while FP2 will be driven at 13:30.

Qualifying starts on Saturday 19th September at 14:00, the race on Sunday 20th September at 10 past one in the afternoon, or 10 past nine in the morning if you’re on the east coast in the USA.

What time does the Singapore Grand Prix start?

As in previous years, the Singapore GP can be followed live in GPblog's live blog from half an hour before the start of the race onwards. The start time of the Singapore Grand Prix is 13:10 UK time (08:10 AM EST) and the race can also be followed live on Sky Sports or F1TV.

All free practice sessions will also be available there.

Last year at the Marina Bay Street Circuit

In somewhat shocking fashion, Ferrari had the quickest car at the 2019 Singapore GP. Everyone had ruled them out of contention for the win as they typically struggle on the Marina Bay Street Circuit, but Charles Leclerc took a dominant pole position while Sebastian Vettel just missed out on a front-row lock-out.

The race was a crazy one. Vettel was the first Ferrari to come in and actually pulled off an undercut on Leclerc, much to the latter’s annoyance as he was leading the race from pole position. Undercuts on your own teammate rarely happen in F1 for obvious reasons.

Behind, Mercedes also did something rare, which is to get their tactics completely wrong. Lewis Hamilton stayed out for way too long in his first stint and emerged from the pitlane in fourth place behind Max Verstappen. The Dutchman had some defending to do at the end of the race but held on to his podium place.

As for Ferrari, it was their first one-two finish since the 2017 Hungarian Grand Prix and Vettel’s first (and only) win of the 2019 season. Leclerc, who was on a two-race winning streak, was fuming with Ferrari and the undercut that was done on him even though he had track position.