Carlos Sainz took his second victory in Formula 1 by holding off Lando Norris and Mercedes in an exciting Singapore Grand Prix as George Russell crashed on the final lap.
The Ferrari driver led every lap of a slow-burning race from pole position, and delivered a tactical masterclass to fend off a rapidly approaching Mercedes duo in the race’s second half by employing Norris as a bodyguard.
Mercedes had forecasted a potential strategic advantage after qualifying on Saturday, with Russell stating that he had saved an extra set of medium tyres available for the race should there be an opportunity to two-stop.
Esteban Ocon’s stopped Alpine presented that opportunity, and the following virtual safety car ensured that both Mercedes drivers could pull in for a free pitstop on lap 44 and claim their fresh sets of tyres.
This gave the Mercedes duo a distinct advantage and, although they gave up track position to drop into fourth and fifth, Russell and Lewis Hamilton were around two seconds per lap quicker than the cars ahead.
Charles Leclerc, who had dropped positions due to the round of pitstops under the earlier safety car having got up to second at the start, was first up for the two Mercedes, who picked him off swiftly and rapidly began to reel in Norris ahead.
Recognising that his best chance of victory was to ensure Norris had the tools to defend, Sainz backed off to ensure Norris had DRS for the closing stages, which protected the McLaren against the threat from behind.
Russell put Norris under heavy pressure on lap 59, but the McLaren driver did just enough to hold firm and keep Russell in his place, buying Sainz some more time.
The leader backed off again to give Norris with DRS for the final few laps, and it proved to be enough; Russell put the result beyond doubt after crashing at Turn 10 having hit the wall on the outside to ensure Sainz could clinch victory
Norris was able to defend from Hamilton in the final lap to secure second, in the first non-Red Bull podium – or indeed, victory – of the season.
Russell had been unable to challenge Sainz off the line and was upstaged by a soft-shod Leclerc at the start as Ferrari began to manage its race early to ensure it could work through the tyre degradation phase.
The field was largely in formation, although Leclerc was told to give Sainz more space – first being told to create a three-second gap, before the demand for a five-second gap grew – to create a margin for a pitstop.
But Logan Sargeant’s clip of the wall on lap 19 put debris over the circuit and, although the Williams driver got the car back to the pits with a broken front wing, a safety car emerged regardless.
This gave the field license to stop, and Leclerc had to check up in his pitbox for Mercedes traffic – which cost him positions to Russell and Norris once he exited the pitlane.
Sainz was then ordered to keep the field bunched up to ensure that Mercedes could not find a gap to pit and bolt on their second set of fresh mediums – but the Ocon-enforced VSC effectively ended that strategy as the Alpine driver retired with a suspected clutch issue.
Leclerc ultimately finished fourth having come to the end of his life, having been effectively ‘sacrificed’ in Ferrari’s hunt for the win – per the Mercedes team radio.
The Ferrari driver held off a fast-charging Max Verstappen, whose alternate strategy paid off for fifth having carved through the order on the medium compound of tyre. Neither Red Bull pitted during the safety car period, and their out-of-position nature at the front on the hards made them easy meat.
Regardless, Verstappen managed to dig out an effective drive to claim a top five result, having passed Pierre Gasly for sixth and then moving up a place when Russell retired.
Gasly finished three seconds clear of Oscar Piastri, who did not have the new McLaren upgrades for this weekend, while Sergio Perez managed to grab eighth position having gone to the back after his sole pitstop.
Perez clashed with Yuki Tsunoda on the first lap which put the AlphaTauri driver out with damage, and is also part of an investigation with Alex Albon as the two made contact at Turn 13.
Liam Lawson claimed his first Formula 1 points with ninth place to cap off a stunning weekend in Singapore, as Kevin Magnussen completed the top ten to add an extra point to Haas’s 2023 points tally.
Albon and Zhou Guanyu finished P11 and P12, with the latter starting from the pitlane having taken a new power unit, and Nico Hulkenberg could only manage P13 having factored in the battle for the points early on.
Sargeant recovered from his error to claim P14, as Fernando Alonso had a miserable race in which he sustained a five-second penalty for passing over the pit entry line and later had an off while suffering with an “undriveable” car. The Aston Martin driver was the last of the drivers to finish.
So the Red Bull winning run of success is over with Carlos Sainz taking victory for Ferrari. This was a refreshing result for the sport after so many wins for Max Verstappen. This Singapore Grand Prix was exciting in the end and such a nice reward for Sainz to take his second career win.
Singapore Grand Prix, race results:
1 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:46:37.418
2 Lando Norris McLaren +0.812s
3 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +1.269s
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +21.177s
5 Max Verstappen Red Bull +21.441s
6 Pierre Gasly Alpine +38.441s
7 Oscar Piastri McLaren +41.479s
8 Sergio Perez Red Bull +54.534s
9 Liam Lawson AlphaTauri +65.918s
10 Kevin Magnussen Haas +72.116s
11 Alexander Albon Williams +73.417s
12 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo +83.649s
13 Nico Hulkenberg Haas +86.201s
14 Logan Sargeant Williams +86.889s
15 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +87.603s
16 George Russell Mercedes DNF
Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo DNF
Esteban Ocon Alpine DNF
Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri DNF
Singapore Grand Prix race review as reported by Formula1.com.
Carlos Sainz converted pole position into a second career victory as the Spaniard held off the charge of Lando Norris and the Mercedes pair of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell – who crashed on the final lap – to take a well-earned win at the Singapore Grand Prix – the first non-Red Bull win of the season.
Sainz kept a hold of the lead at the start but with Charles Leclerc having opted to start on the softs, as opposed to those around him on the mediums, the Monegasque was able to jump ahead of Russell for second place.
He then navigated a Safety Car – caused by Logan Sargeant crashing into the barrier – to keep a hold of the lead, as he later held off the challenge of Russell, Norris, and Hamilton.
But after Esteban Ocon – running in sixth at the time – stopped on track with a suspected gearbox issue, Mercedes used the Virtual Safety Car to stop their drivers for some new medium tyres, setting up a grandstand finish.
But despite Russell and Hamilton getting past Leclerc, they could not overtake Sainz and Norris, with the Spaniard gifting his former McLaren team mate some DRS in the closing stages to hold of the Silver Arrows pair, and sealing a second career win.
Russell’s hopes of a podium ended in the barrier at Turn 10 on the final lap as he looked to get past Norris for second, allowing the McLaren driver to take his third podium finish of the season, while Hamilton took third place.
Leclerc was able to hold off the fast-charging Max Verstappen for fourth at the end, with the Red Bull driver recovering from a difficult outing, that at one stage saw him being overtaken by the leading drivers for the first time this season, to take fifth.
Pierre Gasly was an impressive sixth for Alpine, while Oscar Piastri took seventh for McLaren. Sergio Perez ended up eighth – although he is being investigated for his part in a collision with Alex Albon.
Liam Lawson scored the first points of his short F1 career for AlphaTauri as he took ninth, ahead of the lead Haas of Kevin Magnussen. Alex Albon wound up 11th for Williams, ahead of Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu, and the other Haas of Nico Hulkenberg.
Both Sargeant and Fernando Alonso had their fair share of incidents in the race as the latter had a five-second penalty, a slow pit stop, and went off track to finish last of the remaining runners behind the American rookie in 14th.
Russell’s crash at the end meant he, alongside Valtteri Bottas, Yuki Tsunoda – who sustained a puncture in the opening lap of the race – and Ocon did not finish the race.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.sainz-holds-off-norris-and-fast-charging-mercedes-pair-to-take-sensational.16sNsRUz2MAFyXxSE3RdwX.html
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz said he “felt under control” in Formula 1’s Singapore Grand Prix as he defied Lando Norris to become the first non-Red Bull driver to win in 2023.
The Spaniard led all 62 laps under the lights at the Marina Bay track, producing an inch-perfect tactical drive to convert pole position into his second F1 win by 0.812s.
On aged hard tyres, Sainz kept fellow one-stopper Norris at bay in the closing laps as George Russell and Lewis Hamilton closed them down with fresher medium tyres on their Mercedes to form a four-car train.
But despite the intense pressure, Sainz said he was confident he had enough in hand to score Ferrari’s first win since Austria in July 2022.
After hailing a “perfect” execution from his Ferrari team, Sainz remarked: “I felt under control, to be honest. I always felt like I had the headspace and the pace in hand to do whatever I wanted to do.
“I’m not gonna lie, you’re under pressure and you obviously are very close to making any kind of mistake, but I felt under control.
“I felt like I could manage well, and we brought it home. That was the best feeling you know. I am over the moon right now.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/sainz-felt-under-control-on-his-way-to-singapore-f1-victory/10521650/
Lando Norris revealed he struck the wall in the same place as George Russell on the final lap of Formula 1’s Singapore Grand Prix, moments before the Mercedes driver crashed.
Norris finished second to Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz at the Marina Bay circuit after a tense end to the 62-lap race, as fresher medium tyres brought Russell and Lewis Hamilton onto the tail of the two leaders struggling on older hard compound rubber.
In his efforts to keep Russell at bay on the final tour, Norris grazed the wall with his right-rear tyre at the Turn 10 left-hander but was able to continue while Russell’s similar contact fired him into the barriers to lift Hamilton onto the podium.
Speaking immediately after the race, the McLaren driver explained: “I hit the wall on the last lap in the same place [as Russell], so I think he copied me and just did it even worse.
“So I feel for him, he fought a tough race.”
Norris, who had run behind Russell in third prior to the Mercedes driver making a second stop under a virtual safety car, opined that Russell “was the quickest” driver in the race and revealed that his demise had made the end to his race more straightforward.
“It helped me a bit the last couple of corners, I could chill just a little bit more,” he said.
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/norris-hit-the-same-wall-as-russell-on-f1-singapore-gp-final-lap/10521674/
Carlos Sainz scored his second ever Grand Prix victory in Singapore and his first of the 2023 campaign to break Red Bull’s winning streak, but despite starting from pole and leading from lights to flag, it was anything but simple for the Spaniard.
In an intense race in hot and humid conditions, the pressure was immense from start to finish as Sainz fought to keep the arguably quicker Mercedes of George Russell at bay for much of the evening. He was forced into managing his tyres in the early stages to ensure he could make it to the pit stop period with his nose in front, but that paled into insignificance compared to the pressure that came late on.
With Mercedes on fresh medium tyres, and Sainz nursing a set of the hards that he’d had fitted under the early Safety Car, it was going to take quite the effort to keep them behind in the last handful of laps. Sainz might not have had his team mate as rear gunner but he had the next best thing – former team mate and best friend Lando Norris in the McLaren.
“That little bit of extra stress [at the end] I didn’t want and didn’t need,” he joked afterwards. “But wins never come easy and today we had a bit of everything and we had to fight for it, we had to be strategic, we had to nail everything, we had to commit to our plans and it worked and now we are on a win that tastes really, really well.”
“I didn’t need the team to suggest it, I knew my pace more or less to Lando [Norris], I knew how difficult it is to overtake here. I knew he was on a hard, I knew if George [Russell] and Lewis [Hamilton] were passing him I was probably going to be dead meat also, so I needed him to hold on as long as possible.
“I slowed down just a bit to give him DRS into Turn 7 to hold them off and keep my race under control. Not easy as you are putting yourself under risk and you cannot do any mistakes, but it was my strategy and it worked and I’m glad it did.
“I think we should buy each other drinks, by giving him DRS I saved his P2 and by him defending as well as he did from Russell he helped me to get P1. Good ‘Carlando’ moments out there and it was nice honestly to get the podium with him, we have a great relationship and it was good also to see the McLaren guys there with Ferrari, good story.”
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.sainz-credits-key-carlando-moment-for-preventing-him-being-dead-meat-on-his.3EkQ4E8uKvn2kJdVgZksAE.html