Fifteen wins in a row has proven to be the limit for Red Bull as Carlos Sainz delivered a sublime drive to win the 2023 Singapore Grand Prix.
The writing was on the wall for Red Bull as early as Friday as the car appeared simply out of sorts.
Sliding and a general imbalance across both axels meant that the all-conquering Red Bull car was suddenly not in the running. Still, there were many who expected Verstappen and co to roar back into contention. But as Sainz took pole, Saturday qualifying saw neither Red Bull driver in the top ten.
The race started fairly uneventfully as Sainz maintained the lead with teammate, Charles Leclerc, able to jump second place starter George Russell. Lewis Hamilton, starting fifth, tried his luck around the run-off area of turn one, but was quickly instructed to return the positions gained to Russell and Lando Norris. The first stint of the race, as is usual to the Singapore grand prix, was a game of high-speed chess. The Ferrari’s of Sainz and Leclerc dictated the pace, not only to minimize their tyre degradation but also to ensure that the pack stays close together; thereby negating the opportunity for anyone to try an undercut strategy. Should they have opted for this strategy they would’ve emerged in a heap of traffic without the ability to make use of fresher tyres.
Logan Sargeant got crossed up on the entry to turn eight and went straight into the barrier. Though the Wiliams driver got going again he was spreading carbon fibre all over the race track from his broken front-wing. The prompted the deployment of the safety car on lap eighteen which saw the top seven all dive into the pits for the hard compound tyre.
Red Bull, who opted to start both cars on the hard tyre, were the team most disadvantaged by the appearance of the safety car. Both Verstappen and Perez stayed out but became nothing more than mobile chicanes as Sainz and co easily dispatched them. Normal status resumed with Sainz in the lead. However, because he was held in the pits, to avoid an unsafe release, Leclerc was now behind Russell and Norris and lost a further position to Hamilton having to avoid crashing into the back of Norris.
Russell, now in second, was determined to push for the race win and spent much of the stint less than a second behind Sainz. Meanwhile, Esteban Ocon had been making impressive progress before his Alpine ground to a halt with a suspected hydraulic issue at the exit of the pitlane. This encouraged the deployment of the virtual safety car, and it was decision-making time whether to pit or not.
Ferrari and Norris decided to stay out while Mercedes called their drivers in. It is likely that Ferrari, and McLaren, made this call because they had no new medium tyres to fit and because the soft tyre wouldn’t have gotten them to the end of the race from that point. But Mercedes had played the long game on tyre strategy by ensuring, through practice and qualifying, that they kept a set of new medium tyres available for the race. Such was the pace advantage of Mercedes on the new medium that the pair of Russell and Hamilton looked a certainty for the top two steps of the podium.
Leclerc could offer little in the way of defense against the Mercs, but it would be Lando Norris that scuppered their plans. A staunch defense frustrated Mercedes, but still it seemed inevitable that they would dispatch the McLaren quickly. However, a genial bit of thinking from Sainz saw him drop back just enough to allow Norris within his DRS range, thereby giving him some defense in the straights. In so doing, Sainz also ensured that so long as Norris could hold off the Mercs, he would be safe. Under pressure this display from Sainz was nothing less than astonishing. To have this level of mental capacity during the most physically demanding race of the season, while in the lead, is truly impressive.
Sainz wrapped up only the second win of his career, but he did so in an astoundingly striking way. He was inch perfect for the entire weekend and deserves all the plaudits that will come with this victory.
Most already know and agree that Lando Norris is a bona fide star. But to hold of the Mercedes like he did further underlines it. A fine second place was a well-earned reward for a brilliant drive. In the end it was Hamilton in third after Russell dumped his car into the barrier of turn ten on the final lap of the race. The slight lapse in concentration from Russell proved not only how treacherous this circuit is, but also how quickly one can go from hero to zero.
Leclerc held on to finish fourth on tyres that had seen better days. Verstappen, medium-shod, recovered to fifth while Pierre Gasly and Oscar Piastri were sixth and seventh. Checo Perez was eighth in the other Red Bull while Liam Lawson, deputizing for Daniel Ricciardo, drove exceptionally to finish ninth and score his first points in only his third F1 race. Haas F1’s Kevin Magnussen was tenth.
It was another weekend to forget for Aston Martin as Fernando Alonso trundled home dead last after several adventures, none of them aided by the lack of car performance. Lance Stroll had been ruled out from starting the race on Sunday morning after suffering a high-speed crash in Saturday qualifying.
There is no doubt that the day belonged to Carlos Sainz. A faultless drive at the most difficult and demanding track of the year will stand him in good stead going forward.
