F1’s return to Singapore proved to be spectacular and wet thanks to torrential rainfall just an hour before the race which delayed the start by more than an hour. The race had to be timed to 2 hours as due to the long and slow nature of the street circuit in Singapore, the race could’ve crossed the 2-hour mark. In the end, it was Sergio Perez’s day who jumped Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc at the start and managed to hold on to a lead through an eventful race which had 3 safety cars and numerous disruptions thanks to virtual safety cars triggered by sliding and unreliable cars. It was clearly a race of attrition and the Mexican held the fort and absorbed moments of extreme pressure when he had issues with the drivability of his Honda engine with a pumped-up Leclerc catching him with DRS as the cars moved to slick tyres in the second half of the race. But with P2 Leclerc also closes the gap to championship leader Max Verstappen and keeps his hopes alive for one more race in the season. Perez has now caught up to within 2 points of Leclerc for P2 in the championship but Verstappen’s advantage is still worth more than 4 race wins despite his P7.
The Red Bull reigning world champion had a frustrating race marred by a poor start where he lost ground and at different moments he found himself stuck behind drivers like Alonso, Norris, and Hamilton. He even had a spin while attempting an ambitious move on Norris which meant he didn’t significantly improve on his P8 starting position. Carlos Sainz Jr in the other Ferrari managed a rather discrete P3 after he overtook Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes at the start of the race. The McLaren pair of Lando Norris and Daniel Riccardo cashed in on the various safety cars and the misfortune of their rivals at Alpine to bag a P4 and P5. Both Alpine cars of Fernando Alonso who was in his 350th race and Esteban Ocon retired from the race. Both seemingly had engine issues.
Lance Stroll again proved his skill in wet conditions with a P6 for Aston Martin while his teammate Sebastian Vettel also did well with a P8 ahead of Lewis Hamilton who ended up P9 after a late collision with a barrier after running in P4 for the majority of the race. Pierre Gasly managed P10 for AlphaTauri while his teammate Yuki Tsunoda retired from the race after he crashed into the wall. Valtteri Bottas was the lone Alfa Romeo in P11 while Guanyu Zhou retired because of a technical issue. The Haas duo did decent in P12 and P13 for Magnussen and Schumacher but they were never really in the running for points.
George Russell capped off a horrid weekend with P14 for Mercedes but he did manage to snag the fastest lap point from Perez who was also voted to be the driver of the day. Perez was so good in the fag end of the race he extended his advantage over Leclerc to over 7 seconds which also allowed him to dodge a potential 5-second time penalty for an infringement under safety car conditions which will be investigated after the race. It will cause any harm as Perez regardless of a penalty has enough of a margin to Leclerc. Mclaren’s superb result coinciding with the double DNF for Alpine means that the Woking-based outfit is now P4 in the constructor's championship.
Result
1 Sergio PEREZ Red Bull Racing 2:02:15.238
2 Charles LECLERC Ferrari +7.595
3 Carlos SAINZ Ferrari +15.305
4 Lando NORRIS McLaren +26.133
5 Daniel RICCIARDO McLaren +58.282
6 Lance STROLL Aston Martin +61.330
7 Max VERSTAPPEN Red Bull Racing +63.825
8 Sebastian VETTEL Aston Martin +65.032
9 Lewis HAMILTON Mercedes +66.515
10 Pierre GASLY AlphaTauri +74.576
11 Valtteri BOTTAS Alfa Romeo +93.844
12 Kevin MAGNUSSEN Haas F1 Team +97.610
13 Mick SCHUMACHER Haas F1 Team +1 lap
14 George RUSSELL Mercedes +2 laps
Did not finish
Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri crash lap 36
Esteban Ocon Alpine engine lap 28
Alex Albon Williams crash lap 27
Fernando Alonso Alpine engine lap 22
Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo crash lap 8
Nicholas Latifi Williams crash lap 8
