Max Verstappen cannot defend his unofficial title as the 2026 Formula 1 ‘Sprint King’ – Championship leader Kimi Antonelli also misses out on the top 3
The final sprint of the 2026 Formula 1 season took place in Singapore. Officially, there is no separate championship for the short races in the premier class, but George Russell and Charles Leclerc have collected the most points this year. Both have 34 points each from the six sprints in 2026.
If there were a separate title for this, it would go to Mercedes driver Russell. Although he scored 34 points, just like Leclerc, Russell also secured a whopping three sprint victories in China, Miami and Zandvoort, whilst Leclerc did not win a single sprint.
This meant Russell could even afford to have a crash – and thus score zero points – in the final sprint of the year in Singapore. Third in this unofficial standings was Lando Norris with 33 points, just one point fewer than Russell and Leclerc.
This means that the McLaren driver effectively cost himself the ‘title’ this year when he collided with his team-mate Oscar Piastri on the final lap of the Singapore Sprint.
Unlike in the real World Championship, where Kimi Antonelli could already clinch the title this weekend in Austin, the Italian didn’t even make it into the top three in the Sprint standings. With 31 points and ‘just’ one victory at Silverstone, he finishes in fourth place.
Behind him are Lewis Hamilton (27 points), Oscar Piastri (21) and Max Verstappen (20) in a disappointing seventh place, after the Red Bull driver had previously won the unofficial Sprint Championship in 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025.
Meanwhile, the 2026 sprint season was an absolute debacle for his team-mate Isack Hadjar. The Frenchman failed to score a single point in any of this year’s six sprint races, although he was also forced to miss one of the sprints at Zandvoort due to injury.
In total, twelve drivers scored at least one sprint point this year. In addition to the seven drivers already mentioned, these included Liam Lawson (7), Oliver Bearman (4), Pierre Gasly, Nico Hülkenberg (2 each) and rookie Arvid Lindblad (1).
Final standings of the unofficial 2026 Sprint Championship (Top 10):
1. George Russell (34 points)
2. Charles Leclerc (34)
3. Lando Norris (33)
4. Kimi Antonelli (31)
5. Lewis Hamilton (27)
6. Oscar Piastri (21)
7. Max Verstappen (20)
8. Liam Lawson (7)
9. Oliver Bearman (4)
10. Pierre Gasly (2)