On Sunday, Red Bull’s Sergio Pérez won the Formula One Singapore Grand Prix, while last year’s world champion Max Verstappen finished seventh and second-place Lewis Hamilton finished ninth.
At Marina Bay Street Circuit, Sergio won the race over Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who finished second, and reminded, how the track in wet could be tamed. In the race, Sergio faced a series of incidents prompting five interruptions by the safety and virtual safety car.
This win was the fourth win and the best of Sergio’s career in F1 racing, in which he mastered the slippery surface and faced a race-long challenge from Leclerc.
In the race, due to safety-car infringement, Sergio’s victory hung in the balance for more than two hours, but a five-second penalty did not stop him from going 1st place.
Max Verstappen, last year’s world champion, could only do to finish in 7th due to a rollercoaster of charging up and falling back.
In the eighth qualifying, Verstappen had been on the back foot, but he went hard on the restart, taking too much pace into turn seven.
Verstappen said It’s not what I am here for, not with a car like that, and it was incredibly messy.
However, Verstappen remains in a strong position to win the championship in the next round in Japan, as he leads Leclerc by 104 points and Sergio by 106.
Hamilton, who was second in last year’s championship, was also found unusually wanting, was frustrated, pitched into the barriers, and could do to finish at ninth.
Hamilton said I am so sorry about that guys, and I fucked it up big time. My apologies to the team. We live, and we learn. I am not going to punish myself for a mistake, he said.
Sergio said It was certainly my best performance, and the last few laps were so intense I didn’t feel it that much in the car, but when I got out, I felt it. I gave everything for the win, he said.
Charles Leclerc finished at 2nd, Carlos Sainz finished at 3rd, Lando Norris at 4th, Daniel Ricciardo at 5th, Lance Stroll at sixth, Max Verstappen at seventh, Sebastian Vettel at eighth, Lewis Hamilton at ninth, Pierre Gasly at the tenth, Valtteri Bottas at eleventh, and Kevin Magnussen at 12th.
The F1 championship moves on to Japan Suzuka, which will be held on the 9th of October on Sunday.
