2023-09-17 13:55:33
The Ferrari driver from Spain won an extremely exciting head-to-head race on Sunday ahead of Lando Norris in the McLaren and Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton. World champion Verstappen had to settle for fifth place behind Charles Leclerc on the street circuit under floodlights following ten wins in a row.
In the 15th race of the season, for the first time, no bull was at the top of the podium. Sergio Perez, who contributed two successes, came eighth. For Verstappen, the early title win next Sunday in Suzuka (Japan) is now over. The Dutchman, who has never won in Singapore in his career, can only complete his title hat-trick in the following race in Qatar.
Sainz took Ferrari’s first win since Spielberg in 2022. “The whole of Italy, everyone at Ferrari will be happy regarding it,” the Spaniard breathed a sigh of relief on the sultry night in Singapore.
After a minute’s silence for the victims of the natural disasters in Libya and Morocco, the start took place without any major incidents. Ferrari got off to a perfect start. From then on, pole sitter Sainz turned consistently fast laps at the front ahead of his stable rival Leclerc. Hamilton was pushed far out in turn two, shortening his path and having to give back his third position to Russell and also let Lando Norris pass once more.
For the world champion team, following the completely botched qualifying outside the top ten, there was initially no sign of an epic comeback. Verstappen got stuck in eighth place in the narrow street canyons, Perez in 13th place. The RB19, which dominated the season at will, mightn’t get up to speed at all on the course with many slow corners. Verstappen had commented on his chances in advance with a motionless expression on his face. And hoped for luck in the form of a safety car.
There were several of these, but the Red Bulls were only able to capitalize on them at the finish. The Ferrari dual leadership was also gone following the first safety car deployment. Leclerc lost four places due to his unfortunate tire change. Due to the heavy traffic, the Monegasque was only able to “get out” of the parking space with a delay.
A virtual safety car phase in the final phase once once more called Sainz’s victory into question. Because the two Mercedes with Russell and Hamilton used the slow driving phase to change tires once more. With the faster soft tires they started to catch up towards Sainz, who had a decisive buffer in Norris.
The McLaren man, who fought extremely bravely for his second place, decisively kept the onrushing Silver Arrows at bay. And while Verstappen gained a few places, Norris hunter Russell hit the barriers on the last lap and thus helped Hamilton to a podium finish.
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