RED BULL TAMED: Sainz & Ferrari snap Red Bull, Verstappen streaks with tense win in Singapore; Norris holds off Hamilton for P2 as Russell crashes out of podium position on final lap

In a tense and eventful Singapore Grand Prix, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Ferrari were able to do what no other driver had done in ten races and no other team had done in fifteen races: beat Max Verstappen and Red Bull respectively. With former teammate Lando Norris acting as wingman in his McLaren by holding off the hard charging Mercedes duo of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton in the final, fraught laps, Sainz mastered the circuit and his long run tire management to take his first victory for the Scuderia and Ferrari’s first since 2019 at this very same Marina Bay Circuit by a little under a second. Meanwhile, Red Bull’s struggles in Singapore proved to be too difficult to overcome in the short span of a race weekend and Max and the team both saw their record setting win streaks come to an abrupt end. With Verstappen starting from P11 and teammate Sergio Perez from thirteenth, the pair did the best they could with an inverse strategy of starting on Hard Pirellis while the rest of the top runners were on Mediums. But their best laid plans were stymied somewhat when the inevitable Singapore Safety Car was deployed on Lap 20. Due to where they were on the circuit when the SC came out, the team opted to keep running, which garnered them some track position but the front runners were all able to pit under yellow for cheaper first pit stops. Red Bull then pitted under green with Perez on Lap 40 & Verstappen the subsequent lap and ran their final 20-odd lap stint on the very effective Medium tires. Salvaging what they could on this rare bogey track for them and after that ill-timed early Safety Car, Verstappen was able to forcefully pass his way up to P5 and Perez, who had a bit of sloppy race that included a 5-second penalty for causing a collision with Oliver Piastri, was still good enough for P8. Japan and Suzuka next week should see the return of Red Bull dominance as the RB15, especially in Max’s hands, gets to stretch its legs properly again on a much faster course. But on Sunday, it was Sainz and Ferrari raising the trophies and bathing in champagne after what must have seemed an eternity for the team in the garage, pit wall, the braintrust back in Maranello and the legions of Prancing Horse devotees.

https://x.com/F1/status/1703459550270050443?s=20

It was a tale of two races, as the first part unfolded methodically with all drivers locked into their chosen tire strategies and therefore not pushing too hard on the first stint. The Safety Car on Lap 20 began spicing things up by forcing Red Bull to make the decision to stay out on their Hards while all the other contenders came in for cheap stops and switches to fresh Hards for their ostensible final stint. The utility of fresh rubber was quickly bourn out as the Red Bulls were  gobbled up by their pursuers within a handful of laps. First, Russell nabbed Verstappen for a true P2 on Lap 23. Then, Hamilton regained P5 against Perez two laps later. Hamilton passed Verstappen for P4 on Lap 27 and Leclerc followed that up with his own successful move on the Dutchman a lap after to get his Ferarri back to P5. But Leclerc never really recovered from a slow first stop when the Scuderia double-stacked their men but Leclerc was both further away from Sainz on entry and the mechanics were slow with his tire change. So, the leaders were really the quartet of Sainz, followed by Russell, then Norris and then Hamilton. The two Red Bulls finally made the decision to get off their Hards in favor of the Mediums for the rest of the race, first with Perez on lap 40, then Verstappen on lap 41. Once again, their timing was not optimal because the Alpine of Esteban Ocon, who had been having a superb race, came to an abrupt stop at Turn 2 near pit out, bringing out a Virtual Safety Car.

Team Mercedes then rolled the dice in spectacular fashion by calling both Silver Arrows in on Lap 45 for a fresh set of Mediums, which they had in reserve unlike most teams, to hopefully give them a decisive tire advantage in the closing stanza. While that lost them a little track position and saw Russell come out in P4 and Hamilton P5 behind Leclerc, the gamble and tire advantage quickly paid off. With Leclerc helpless to hold off Russell by Lap 53 and Hamilton getting by the Monegasque the lap after. With a handful of laps remains in this 62-lap contest, the Mercedes duo were soon on the tail of McLaren’s Norris in P2, who skillfully backed up Russell in the lead Silver Arrow until he was actually impeding his teammate Hamilton. While Norris and Sainz used to be teammates with McLaren, Norris still gave his best wingman-like performance, fending off Russell’s best efforts to leapfrog him and get on with the business of attacking Sainz for the win. The intensity likely got to young George because, stymied by Norris and desperate for a way past, the Briton overcooked it on the final lap and binned his car into the tech pro barriers, ending his race in shocking and heartbreaking fashion. Despite no longer having his teammate holding him up, Hamilton ran out of laps and the exuberant Sainz crossed the finish line with the hard fought win, Norris trailing just 0.812 seconds behind in P2 and the very game Hamilton taking the last spot on the podium in P3.

Leclerc had to settle for P4 and watching his teammate get all the adulation on the day but in truth Sainz managed the race beautifully and looked the superior driver at this particular tricky circuit. Verstappen made the best of a bad day, by Red Bull standards anyway, by salvaging P5, while Perez recovered to P8 despite a 5-second penalty for that previous incident with Piastri. The lone surviving Alpine of Pierre Gasly was rewarded for a flawless effort with a solid P6 and Piastri survived his late race encounter with Perez, as well as a lowly P17 start after his qualifying was brought to a premature end in Q1 due to Lance Stroll’s spectacular shunt, to claw his way back into good points in P7. It was another impressively mature drive by the Aussie rookie and in Piastri and Norris, McLaren have a rather special young driver lineup with loads of future potential. Rounding out the Top 10, another rookie, AlphaTauri’s Liam Lawson, scored championship points with a P9 result on the day in only his third Grand Prix while subbing for the injured Mark Webber. Lawson is giving a pretty tough test to the old adage “you can’t lose your seat due to an injury” and, as AlphaTauri are essentially a Red Bull development team, his excellent efforts when thrown into the deep end mid-F1 season have certainly got to have all the Red Bull and AlphaTauri brass seriously considering keeping him in the seat for the rest of this year and next, too. Haas’s Kevin Magnussen scored the last point in P10, the Danish veteran having somehow survived what seemed like a half dozen dicey incidents en route to seeing the checkered flag.

For Aston Martin, it was a lost weekend in Singapore. Stroll was unable to start the race due to the effects of his heavy crash, which batted his head laterally in scary fashion. And Fernando Alonso failed to score when the team completely botched his second pit stop on Lap 45, seemingly unprepared or unable to get the rear jack properly engaged after serving a motionless 5-second penalty Alonso incurred earlier for crossing over the pit entry line on his first stop. After being stuck in his box for an excruciating 25.8-seconds, Alonso came out last and, unable to improve with an ill handling car. finished last of the remaining runners in P15. One has to say that after a blistering start to the year, Aston have fallen back to earth as the other midfield contenders have developed their machines at a superior pace. Aston Martin are still 78 points ahead of McLaren for fourth in the Constructors’ points but they badly need a good result for both cars next weekend in Japan to change the momentum and hold off the hard charging papaya-clad duo nipping at their heels.

Top 10 finishers of the Singapore GP:

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in but a week’s time — the Japanese Grand Prix from the iconic Suzuka International Racing Course. Was this a one-race blip or have Red Bull got more significant problems on their hands? My money’s on them getting back to their winning ways with style but hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!