02/10/2022
NEWS STORY
Red Bull driver Sergio Perez underlined his status as the man to beat on street circuits, following his Monaco victory earlier this year. He won the Singapore Grand Prix ahead of Ferrari team mates Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. The top three all crossed the finish line on P Zero Yellow medium tyres.
The start of the race was delayed for an hour following a rainstorm that fell shortly before the cars were due to go to the grid. Once the rain had stopped, racing got underway on a wet track with all the cars on the Cinturato Green intermediate. More than half the race elapsed before the track was suitable for slicks.
Once more, the Safety Car played a prominent role in Singapore. The first Safety Car period came on lap seven, with nobody electing to stop for fresh tyres. There was then a Virtual Safety Car on lap 21, when Mercedes driver George Russell was the first to go onto P Zero Yellow medium slicks. The other teams eventually followed the same strategy, with the exception of McLaren's Daniel Ricciardo and Alfa Romero driver Valtteri Bottas, who both chose the P Zero Red soft. Excitement in the closing stages came from Leclerc and Perez trading fastest laps, with the Mexican's final effort being a 1m48.165s on the mediums.
The McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo got the best use out of the Cinturato Green intermediate, completing the longest stint of 36 laps on them. The team split the strategies, with both drivers stopping only once but Norris going onto medium and Ricciardo onto soft. The result was fourth and fifth places, with strong points for the British squad.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen, who started from eighth on the grid, managed to finish in the points after losing several positions. He made two pit stops in quick succession: taking the mediums on lap 35 before swapping them for softs five laps later. The championship leader eventually took the flag in seventh.
Haas drivers Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher also stopped just once with split strategies, finishing in 12th and 13th places on the medium and soft tyres respectively.
Mario Isola: "The Cinturato Green intermediates showed their reliability today. Even with quite high wear, they delivered excellent performance over several laps just as we expected, thanks also to the data collected in qualifying. As we saw yesterday too, the track took some time to dry out because of the water that remained on the surface. As conditions became drier, the race took on a new lease of life with drivers moving onto the slicks. The majority of teams chose the P Zero Yellow medium, which guaranteed an optimal balance between performance, warm-up, and durability. Drivers had to pay particular attention not to go off the line in order to avoid water cooling down the compound, which could affect operating temperatures. To come back to Singapore in front of so many fans truly showcased Formula 1 at its spectacular best this weekend."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Singapore here.