Heavy rain at the track delayed the start of the Singapore Grand Prix by over an hour, but Sergio Perez wasn’t daunted. He grabbed the lead off Charles Leclerc at the start and never looked back.
“It was certainly my best performance,” Perez said. “I controlled the race. The last few laps were so intense. I gave it everything for the win today.”
However, Perez was under investigation for potentially passing in front of the safety car during one of the many yellow flags throughout the race, and the stewards awarded him a five-second penalty. Perez did finish with a 7.5-second gap ahead of Leclerc after his team informed of the penalty, so he still holds the win.
Charles Leclerc stood on the second step of the podium ahead of his teammate Carlos Sainz after losing the lead to Perez in the first turn.
“I pushed all the way,” Leclerc said, “but the bad start put us on the back foot. I had a little bit of wheelspin. It was a difficult race – a good night’s sleep now, and we’ll get ready for Japan.”
Sainz was less confident in the wet, with only Perez and Leclerc looking fast on the slippery surface.
“It was very tough out there, I never got into the rhythm in the wet,” Sainz said. “I had to settle a bit for P3 – I was quick towards the end when I managed to build a bit of confidence. It’s crazy how long it takes here to dry.”
The safety car that affected Perez was just one of many caution periods throughout the day. Both Alpine and Williams drivers failed to finish, as well as Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu.
Lewis Hamilton damaged his front wing after hitting the wall. Hamilton finished ninth.
“The problems that we have with this car are magnified in the rain,” Hamilton said after the race.
Title contender Max Verstappen wasn’t safe either. He suffered a range of technical problems throughout the weekend, and suffered from several lockups – one of which led to a spin – in the race, coming home in eighth.
It’s just a very frustrating weekend,” said Verstappen. “We have five races left and we have a big lead but I want to have a good weekend every single time.”
That result means Verstappen has not clinched the World Championship just yet, with his next chance coming in the Japanese Grand Prix on October 9th.
| 1 | 2:02:15.238 | 25 | |
| 2 | +7.595s | 18 | |
| 3 | +15.305s | 15 | |
| 4 | +26.133s | 12 | |
| 5 | +58.282s | 10 | |
| 6 | +61.330s | 8 | |
| 7 | +63.825s | 6 | |
| 8 | +65.032s | 4 | |
| 9 | +66.515s | 2 | |
| 10 | +74.576s | 1 | |
| 11 | +93.844s | 0 | |
| 12 | +97.610s | 0 | |
| 13 | +1 lap | 0 | |
| 14 | +2 laps | 0 | |
| NC | DNF | 0 | |
| NC | DNF | 0 | |
| NC | DNF | 0 | |
| NC | DNF | 0 | |
| NC | DNF | 0 | |
| NC | DNF | 0 |
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