Sainz holds off Norris and fast-charging Mercedes pair to take sensational Singapore Grand Prix victory.
Carlos Sainz converted pole position into a second career victory as the Spaniard held off the charge of Lando Norris and the Mercedes pair of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell – who crashed on the final lap – to take a well-earned win at the Singapore Grand Prix – the first non-Red Bull win of the season.
Sainz kept a hold of the lead at the start but with Charles Leclerc having opted to start on the softs, as opposed to those around him on the mediums, the Monegasque was able to jump ahead of Russell for second place.
He then navigated a Safety Car – caused by Logan Sargeant crashing into the barrier – to keep a hold of the lead, as he later held off the challenge of Russell, Norris, and Hamilton.
But after Esteban Ocon – running in sixth at the time – stopped on track with a suspected gearbox issue, Mercedes used the Virtual Safety Car to stop their drivers for some new medium tires, setting up a grandstand finish.
But despite Russell and Hamilton getting past Leclerc, they could not overtake Sainz and Norris, with the Spaniard gifting his former McLaren team mate some DRS in the closing stages to hold of the Silver Arrows pair, and sealing a second career win.
Russell’s hopes of a podium ended in the barrier at Turn 10 on the final lap as he looked to get past Norris for second, allowing the McLaren driver to take his third podium finish of the season, while Hamilton took third place.
Leclerc was able to hold off the fast-charging Max Verstappen for fourth at the end, with the Red Bull driver recovering from a difficult outing, that at one stage saw him being overtaken by the leading drivers for the first time this season, to take fifth.
Pierre Gasly was an impressive sixth for Alpine, while Oscar Piastri took seventh for McLaren. Sergio Perez ended up eighth – although he is being investigated for his part in a collision with Alex Albon.
Liam Lawson scored the first points of his short F1 career for AlphaTauri as he took ninth, ahead of the lead Haas of Kevin Magnussen. Alex Albon wound up 11th for Williams, ahead of Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu, and the other Haas of Nico Hulkenberg.
Both Sargeant and Fernando Alonso had their fair share of incidents in the race as the latter had a five-second penalty, a slow pit stop, and went off track to finish last of the remaining runners behind the American rookie in 14th.
Russell’s crash at the end meant he, alongside Valtteri Bottas, Yuki Tsunoda – who sustained a puncture in the opening lap of the race – and Ocon did not finish the race.
For Red Bull Racing, losing your first race as a team this late into the season is a remarkable feat. For the presumptive champion Max Verstappen, the streak of wins ends at 10.
“I think we did the best we could today,” said Verstappen post race. “We had good pace and we were just unfortunate with the timing of the safety car, if it weren’t for that, I really think that we would have been in a good place to fight up front. With the strategy today it was really important to not make any mistakes. In the end I was able to have some fun catching up on the mediums. For now, the target is to win next weekend in Japan. Everything needs to be perfect to win every race in a season, I knew this day would come and it’s absolutely fine. Everyone sees how dominant we can be and they don’t realize how difficult it really is, we need to get a lot of things right.”
Team Principal Christian Horner echoed similar thoughts.
“Firstly, congratulations to Ferrari. Carlos drove a great race and managed to hold on for the win. It certainly has been an exciting race today, but for us, we were very unlucky. The safety car could not have come at a worse time and that killed any chance for us to get into contention. It was a shame, but there are also a lot of positives. Max’s pace at the end and then with Checo coming back through also made for a very strong performance. We knew that the run would come to an end at some point and we reflect on the job well done by the Team. 15 wins in a row is an incredible feat. 10 wins for Max is something that is equally remarkable. We carry a lot of momentum heading into Japan and look forward to getting out and going again.”
