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Red Bull continue to dominate as Sergio Perez claims victory at the delayed Singaporean Grand Prix.
Despite having their star driver Max Verstappen out of the battle for the win, Red Bull have continued to dominate the 2022 season after Mexico’s Sergio Perez claimed victory at the Grand Prix of Singapore.
Ferrari claimed a double podium with Charles Leclerc finishing second and Carlos Sainz crossing the line in third.
McLaren capitalised on a double DNF from constructor rivals Alpine, with Lando Norris finishing in fourth and Daniel Ricciardo in fifth.
Aston Martin claimed their first double points finish in the 2022 season with Lance stroll in sixth and Sebastien Vettel in eighth.
Verstappen’s championship victory will have to wait as the Dutchman finished seventh.
As it happened
Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc had the exact same reaction time off the line as the lights went out in Singapore. The Mexican dived down the inside to take the lead of the race.
Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton made contact into turn one, forcing the 7-time World Champion to run wide, letting the Spaniard past.
Max Verstappen had a start from hell, losing places on the opening lap for the first time this season as the Dutchman fell from 8th to 12th in the first lap. The reigning World Champion worked his way back up to ninth place after some sleek overtakes.
Alpine’s Fernando Alonso struggled off the line, losing out on fifth place to constructor rival, McLaren’s Lando Norris.
George Russell, who started from the pit lane damaged Valteri Bottas’ front wing after he locked up during a lunge in a bid to overtake the Fin.
An array of safety cars
Zhou Guanyu was the first driver to DNF in Asia after Nicolas Latifi squeezed the Chinese driver into the wall, bringing out the safety car on lap 8. The damage from the collision also caused the Canadian driver to retire from the race.
Verstappen fired his tyres up well after the safety car restart, picking up two places in one lap.
An extremely tame race followed until Fernando Alonso brought out a virtual safety car which saw George Russell make a brave call to pit for slick tyres, sticking on mediums on the 23rd lap. The Englishman immediately complained about a lack of grip on the radio.
Williams’ Alex Albon became the next driver to bring out a virtual safety car after the Thai driver understeered into the wall at turn 8.
Shortly after, things went from bad to worse for Alpine after Esteban Ocon’s A522 puffed out a massive cloud of smoke forcing the Frenchman to pull over to the side of the road.
Whilst trying to overtake Sainz, Hamilton got too eager, sticking his W13 in the wall. Although the Englishman was able to continue Norris capitalised on the crash, overtaking Hamilton. Hamilton pulled out in front of Verstappen and slowed down the Dutchman due to the broken wing of the Mercedes car.
A series of pit stops were made after the grid noticed George Russell was making progress on his mediums tyres as the track slowly started to dry up. Ferrari pulled Leclerc in to box, which triggered a reaction from Sergio Perez and the rest of the grid. Anyone who didn’t pit for slicks, did so shortly after when Yuki Tsunoda brought out yet another safety car.
After the restart, Verstappen threw a hail mary at turn seven, lunging down the inside of Norris, the reigning Champion had an enormous lock up, ruining his tyres and running down the escape road. The Dutchman was forced to pit for new softs which saw him come out in last place.
Charles Leclerc began to apply some pressure on race-leader Sergio Perez, hunting down the Mexican which half an hour to go. Despite the Monegasque having DRS, Red Bull’s straight-line speed proved to reign supreme.
With the worry of collecting a five-second penalty for a safety car infringement, Perez took off out in front, clearing Leclerc by seven seconds to win his second race of the season.
Final Order:
- Sergio Perez
- Charles Leclerc
- Carlos Sainz
- Lando Norris
- Daniel Ricciardo
- Lance Stroll
- Max Verstappen
- Sebastien Vettel
- Lewis Hamilton
- Pierre Gasly
- Valtteri Bottas
- Mick Schumacher
- Kevin Magnussen
- George Russell (fastest lap)
DNFs: – Zhou Guanyu, Nicolas Latifi, Fernando Alonso, Alex Albon, Esteban Ocon, Yuki Tsunoda
Headline Feature Image: GettyImages
