Singapore GP: Perez wins despite pending investigation
2nd October 2022Red Bull’s Sergio Perez controlled the race from start to finish after he completed an early move on Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, into the first corner, but his win is under-threat after a post-race investigation.
How the race unfolded…
Both Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez made a great start and the Mexican Red Bull driver managed to slip up into the race lead by the first corner, while Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) and Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) ran third and fourth respectively.
Whereas the championship leader, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen bogged down in the start and the Dutchman lost a handful of places.
By the end of the first lap, Perez led ahead of Leclerc, Sainz and Hamilton while Verstappen – with a chance of securing the title today – sat down in 12th.
After the first five laps, of 61, Perez remained out in front, 1.2 seconds ahead of Ferrari’s championship hopeful, Leclerc, who remained second. While Verstappen regained his speed, the Dutchman climbed back up to ninth – one place away from where he started (P8).
Although Haas’ Kevin Magnussen had nursed front wing damage, as a result of contact with Verstappen in the early stages of the race, the Dane was issued with the black and orange flag.
On lap eight, Alfa Romeo’s Guanyu Zhou became the race’s first retirement as he was squeezed into the wall – at the entry of turn five – by the Williams of Nicholas Latifi. The squeeze caused terminal damage to the Chinese driver’s front suspension while the Canadian suffered a puncture.
As a result, the safety car was deployed to allow the track marshals to remove the stranded Alfa. Shortly after, Latifi became the second retirement as he pulled into the pit lane for repairs, but the Williams mechanics opted to retire the car from the race.
Race control soon declared that there will be an investigation into the Latifi/Zhou incident, as well as the Verstappen/Magnussen. Both incidents were checked to see if a driver was at fault for causing a collision.
The safety car peeled back into the pit lane, as the 10th lap came to an end, which allowed Perez to control the pack’s pace. The Mexican got the race back underway in the penultimate corner to race into turn one unchallenged by Leclerc, behind him.
As the field was forced to bunch back up due to the safety car, this brought Verstappen back into the fight for a podium. By turn five, Verstappen dispatched Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel, at turn five, quickly followed by a move around the hairpin – on the exit of the Anderson Bridge – on Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly, to move up into seventh place.
On lap 21, on his 350th race start – the most of any driver, Alpine’s Fernando Alonso became the third retirement of the race as his engine let go on him. As the track marshals were required to retrieve and extract the stranded Alpine, the Virtual Safety Car was deployed on lap 21.
Mercedes’ George Russell ventured into the pit lane on lap 22, under VSC conditions, and swapped his worn intermediate tyres for the yellow-walled medium compound tyres. The VSC ended a lap later.
On lap 26, the yellow flag was brought out at turn eight, as the Williams driver of Alexander Albon nose-dived into the barrier and lost a front wing as a result. This soon brought the VSC back out. The London-born driver was able to return to the pit lane but the Mechanics were forced to retire their final car from the race – due to the amount of damage.
As the pack ventured around the Singapore circuit, the VSC was lifted and the session went back to green flag running on Lap 27.
A lap later, Alpine’s Esteban Ocon was seen stopped out on track – on the run-off area at the Anderson Bridge. The Frenchman was soon forced to retire from the race due to mechanical issues. The VSC was – once again – deployed.
The VSC was finally lifted, on lap 30.
On lap 33, Hamilton made a rare mistake and found himself in the barrier at the exit of turn five as the seven-time world champion locked up into the braking zone. Despite a damaged front wing, Hamilton couldn’t slow his car down in time and nose-dived into the barrier.
However, the British driver was able to continue on and filtered in between both McLaren’s Lando Norris and Verstappen, who were fifth and sixth respectively – before the incident.
A lap later, Alpha Tauri’s two drivers, Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda, and Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas peeled into the pit lane for slick tyres. Quickly followed by the front runners of Leclerc and Perez, in two successive laps.
On the exit of the Singapore Sling, turn 10, Tsunoda was the next retirement of the session as the Japanese driver crashed, heavily, into the barrier. The safety car was soon deployed as a result, to allow the marshals to extract the stranded Alpha Tauri.
As the session crept towards its 40-lap mark, it had transitioned from a lapped race to a timed race. With less than 35 minutes left on the track, the safety car peeled back into the pit lane.
However, on the restart, Verstappen attempted to make a move on Norris into turn five but the Dutchman locked up his front tyres badly and was forced onto the run-off area. Verstappen soon pitted to swap his ruined mediums for the soft compound tyres.
At the same time, Perez was put under investigation for a safety car infringement. This was later
A lap later, with just over 30 minutes on the clock, Russell was seen crawling around the circuit with a right-rear puncture as the Briton banged wheels with the Haas of Mick Schumacher into the first corner. The #63 Mercedes was forced to return to the pit lane for a fresh set of the red-walled soft compound tyres. This action was repeated by Schumacher who was also forced to pit for fresh soft tyres.
With less than half-an-hour to go, the DRS was enabled for the first time in the session.
In the final laps of the race, Hamilton attempted to make a move on Vettel down into turn eight but the Mercedes driver slipped over onto the damp section of track and struggled to get the car slowed down in time to make the corner.
This meant the seven-time world champion was forced to head towards the run-off area at turn eight, and allowed Verstappen to slip through up to P8. However, by the end of the race, Verstappen managed to slip passed and finish the race P7, ahead of Vettel but behind Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll.
Podium:
- Sergio Perez, Red Bull
- Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
- Carlos Sainz, Ferrari
That’s it for the article; Singapore GP: Leclerc on pole while Verstappen is ordered to pit! After a weather delay, should F1 revise their starting procedures for wet weekends? Let us know in the comments!
Read more Formula 1 here:
- Singapore GP: Leclerc on pole while Verstappen is ordered to pit
- Singapore GP: Leclerc tops FP3 after weather delay
- Singapore GP: Sainz leads 1-2 finish in FP2
- Singapore GP: Hamilton tops FP1 as Stroll red flags session
- 3 shocking moments from F1 Singapore GP
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
