Verstappen wins Singapore sprint but warns Red Bull's poor starts could cost Sunday's race

Max Verstappen won the Singapore Sprint at the Marina Bay Street Circuit on Saturday, his first victory of any kind at the venue, but the four-time world champion was in no mood to celebrate — pointing instead to a persistent starts problem that he says could ruin Red Bull’s Sunday grand prix.

Verstappen was blunt about the sprint result itself. “I want to win tomorrow,” he said. “I don’t see this as a win in terms of actually winning a grand prix.” He has long been vocal about his indifference to the sprint format, and that position has not softened. “My emotion is the same. It doesn’t matter to me if I have won on the track before or not.”

The more pressing concern came off the line. For the second weekend running, Verstappen was left standing while rivals accelerated away — George Russell passed him at the sprint start in Singapore, just as both Mercedes cars had surged by him in Malaysia. “The start was horrendous again, so that’s definitely something that we need to improve on,” Verstappen admitted. “If you have something like that tomorrow, that’s your race over, if nothing crazy happens.”

When asked what was causing the problem, Verstappen kept it simple: “As always, it just doesn’t go off the line. The car just doesn’t go, we don’t accelerate off the line.”

The issue is particularly acute in Singapore, where the narrow Marina Bay layout makes overtaking almost impossible and grid position is close to decisive. Verstappen acknowledged that the fault is not entirely mechanical, suggesting driver and team execution both play a role. “We have a few limitations that we have to work on, and that is probably from our side as well,” he said. “We have to do a better job because Racing Bulls sometimes does better starts than us, so yeah, we just need to be better.”

Despite the starts concern, the sprint result and Friday’s qualifying pace do indicate that the RB22 is genuinely competitive around the street circuit — a track that has historically been unkind to Red Bull. Verstappen, however, is not drawing comfort from that. His focus is entirely on Sunday, and he knows that unless the launch issue is resolved before lights out, the race could effectively be over in the first few seconds.