Marina Bay Street Circuit in Singapore welcomed the F1 circus after a 3-year break.
Grid girls are seen before the Singapore Formula One Grand Prix at the Marina Bay Street Circuit on September 27, 2009. Photo by Vladimir Rys / Bongarts / Getty Images.
The home of the inaugural night race saw uncertain weather conditions on Saturday.
A general view of the action during practice ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Singapore at Marina Bay Street Circuit on September 30, 2022 in Singapore. Photo by Clive Rose / Getty Images.
Between the FP3 and qualifying there had been heavy rain and conditions were mixed, as the qualifying got underway.
Carlos Sainz at the pits during the free practice of the 2022 Singapore GP. Photo by Ferrari.
Charles Leclerc during the free practice of the 2022 Singapore GP. Photo by Ferrari.
There were many offs especially in Turn 8, but luckily no off ended up in the wall. Intermediates was everyone's unanimous choice. Like expected, Verstappen and Leclerc showed top form, but Mercedes seemed to had found more performance coming to Singapore.
Lewis Hamilton driving the n. 44 Mercedes AMG W13 during practice ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Singapore at Marina Bay Street Circuit on September 30, 2022. Photo by Mark Thompson / Getty Images.
In Q1 Hamilton was second, a tenth down on pace-setting Verstappen only.
Charles Leclerc during the qualifying of the 2022 Singapore GP. Photo by Ferrari.
At the end of the second session Charles asked on the team radio, whether it would be the right time to switch to the slicks. However, the Aston Martin duo of Vettel and Stroll were the first drivers to put the slicks on, but it was slightly too early. Due to the risky call both drivers were eliminated from the final segment. Charles topped the timesheets in Q2 by 0.348-second margin to Hamilton and 0.380-second margin to Verstappen. Russell in his Mercedes failed to make it through to Q3, which caught me by surprise. The Briton was knocked out by 0.006s only.
Carlos Sainz during the qualifying of the 2022 Singapore GP. Photo by Ferrari.
Carlos Sainz during the qualifying of the 2022 Singapore GP. Photo by Ferrari.
The decisive last segment proved thrilling, and the top spot saw various names during the 12-minute session. The circuit kept improving lap by lap, and everyone came out on soft Pirellis. Hamilton banged the fastest lap time, leaving Charles 0.8s off the pace. After a cautious opening lap Verstappen improved, but he was still 0.376s shy of Hamilton's benchmark. With three minutes remaining in the clock, it seemed, that Hamilton was surprisingly close to his first pole of the season. However, only a moment later Alonso in his Alpine went fastest. Alonso got to enjoy his P1 for a moment only, as Charles robbed the Spaniard of the desired top spot. Verstappen had to abandon his lap due to a mistake.
Charles Leclerc after his pole position at the 2022 Singapore GP. Photo by Ferrari.
At the dying moments of the qualifying Charles had his hands on the 9th pole of the season, Perez was second in the sister Red Bull and Sainz third in the other Ferrari. On his last run Hamilton jumped third, which marks the first top 3 finish for the 7-time world champion this year. The top three were separated by 54 thousandths of a second only. Qualifying saw an unexpected turn, as Verstappen was called to pit on his very final run, having improved in sectors one and two. It was no surprise, that there was furious Max Verstappen on the team radio. The guess was, that Verstappen had been running out of gas, which forced the team to call their driver in at the most crucial moment. This call came with a high price, as Verstappen was left 8th in the final results. However, a more modest grid slot hasn't been a problem for Max this season, as the flying Dutchman has been able to win from eight different starting positions, some of them having been very far down from the front row.
A band performs the national anthem on the grid during the F1 Grand Prix of Singapore at Marina Bay Street Circuit on October 02, 2022. Photo by Bryn Lennon / Formula 1 via Getty Images.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, waves to the crowd on the drivers’ parade prior to the F1 Grand Prix of Singapore at Marina Bay Street Circuit on October 02, 2022. Photo by Edmond So / Eurasia Sport Images/ Getty Images.
When starting procedure was to get underway, heavy rain and a thunder storm hit the Marina Bay area. The start was declared to be postponed and, in the end, the start was delayed by over an hour.
Track marshals clear water from the track prior to the F1 Grand Prix of Singapore at Marina Bay Street Circuit on October 02, 2022 in Singapore. Photo by Clive Mason / Getty Images.
In spite of the monsoon rain, the standing water decreased rapidly as soon as the rain had stopped. All drivers went for the intermediates and there was a standing start.
Mercedes' Russell, who had been knocked out in Q2 in yesterday's qualifying, started to the race from the pit lane due to a power unit change.
Charles Leclerc driving the n. 16 Ferrari F1-75 leads Carlos Sainz driving the n. 55 Ferrari F1-75 at the start of the F1 Singapore Grand Prix at Marina Bay Street Circuit on October 02, 2022 in Singapore. Photo by Bryn Lennon / Formula 1 via Getty Images.
The start was risky, as there was heavy braking into Turn 1 on slippery conditions. Perez took a perfect start from P2 and accelerated into the lead. Actually Perez and Charles had exactly the same reaction time at the start, but in wet conditions P2 offered more grip than pole position. Hamilton and Sainz had contact on the opening lap and Carlos managed to take P3 behind his teammate. Further down in P8 Verstappen had a nightmare start. His RB18 went into anti-stall and the Dutchman lost four positions, as there were cars passing him from both left and right.
The first distortion came on lap 7 already, when Williams' Latifi caused a collision with Alfa Romeo's Zhou, which ended the race for both of them. Virtual safety car was deployed. A lap later virtual safety car was converted into safety car. This was perfect news for Verstappen, who was 30 seconds behind his race-leading teammate already.
The first restart brought no changes to the pecking order. Verstappen saw his chance and overtook both Aston Martin's Vettel and Alpha Tauri's Gasly, claiming P7. Teammate Perez mastered everything in the lead, although the gap to Charles was a couple of seconds only. Carlos in third couldn't quite match the top two's pace.
The second distortion came on lap 21, as Alonso's Alpine was suddenly hit with an engine failure. It was a shame for Alonso, who had started to the race from P6 and was driving his record-breaking 350th GP. Alonso's DNF made Verstappen jump 6th. Virtual safety car was deployed for the second time, with hardly a third of the race having been completed.
Mercedes driver Russell was the first driver to pit for slicks. However, Russell was sliding massively on his fresh medium tyres and had his hands full to keep his W12 between the white lines. It was definitely way too early for slicks.
Only three laps after the second virtual safety car Albon in his Williams ended up into the tech-pro barriers. Albon managed to reverse out of the barriers, but his front wing got stuck under the barrier. The Thai driver managed to make it into the pits, but only to retire the race. Once again, virtual safety car was deployed but for a short moment only. On the sequential lap Ocon's Alpine was hit with a showy engine failure, as there was a huge cloud of smoke coming from the rear of the Frenchman's car. Again there was virtual safety car!
The conditions were extremely tricky, and mistakes were made by unexpected drivers. Hamilton was fighting hard with Carlos, trying to find a chance to overtake, but it was dangerous to abandon the dry line. On lap 34 Hamilton was hungry to try a move on Carlos, but he braked too late, which caused a lock-up, and the Briton crashed into the barriers nose first. Luckily for Hamilton, the contact wasn't too heavy. The left-side end plate of his front wing had taken damage, but Hamilton managed to continue. The mistake came with a price; he dropped down to P5 between Norris and Verstappen.
Charles Leclerc followed by his team mate Carlos Sainz at the 2022 Singapore GP. Photo by Ferrari.
Ferrari called Charles in on lap 36. The pit stop took 5.5 seconds, so a few seconds were lost there. Hamilton pitted too, for fresh medium Pirellis and a new front wing. Perez came in from the lead, so did Sainz and Verstappen. The tyre choice for all of them was the medium compound. Alpha Tauri's Tsunoda, who was racing in the midfield, had also pitted for slicks. The out lap proved costly for the Japanese, who braked way too late on the cold tyres and ended up into the barriers. Once again safety car came out! McLaren's Norris took advantage of this and pitted from P3.
The lap calculation turned into remaining time, when 38 laps out of 61 had been completed. This meant no full distance was going to be completed. Soon after the restart it was Verstappen, who made a mistake. He was racing Norris impatiently, hungry to find a way past the Briton. He locked up his tires and went wide. Verstappen managed to stay out of the barriers, but he dropped down to P8 again. In addition to this he was forced to pit for new tires. The podium fight had slipped through his fingers and he was at the very back of the pack.
At one point it seemed, that Charles was actually able to take the battle to Perez, as the Monegasque stayed within the striking distance from the Mexican for several laps. But the chance for overtaking never came. Towards the end of the race Perez was told to increase the gap to Charles, as Checo was under investigation for a possible safety car infringement, which could lead to a 5-second time penalty. With two minutes to go, Perez had increased the gap into 4.5 seconds. Meanwhile, on the dying moments of the race, Hamilton made his second mistake already when chasing Vettel. Going off from the dry line caused Hamilton to go wide, which enabled Verstappen to overtake. It is not often that we see two mistakes in one race from the 7-time world champion!
Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc at the end of the race. Photo by Ferrari.
At the chequered flag Perez was over 7 seconds ahead of Charles, who finished the runner-up. Carlos completed the podium, so finally it was a good day at the office for the Red Team. McLaren performed outstandingly as well, with Norris 4th and Ricciardo 5th. Verstappen squeezed his RB18 past Vettel's AMR22 on the very final lap, which made the flying Dutchman 7th in the final results. Aston Martin scored decent points as well, with Stroll finishing 6th and Vettel 8th. Hamilton and Gasly rounded out the top ten, scoring the last three points.
Charles Leclerc, second, on the podium. Photo by Ferrari.
Carlos Sainz, third, on the podium. Photo by Ferrari.
After the race Perez was handed a 5-second time penalty for his safety car infringement, but it didn't have an effect on the race results. Max didn't secure his world title in Singapore, so the battle continues in Japan next week! In terms of the drivers' championship standings, it's extremely tight between Perez (235) and Charles (237) and between Carlos (202) and Russell (203). Ferrari still have two battles to win! Forza Ferrari!
With passion for racing red,
Iina Huhmarniemi
Comments
Authorize to comment