Singapore – Race: Lewis Hamilton, from start to finish
Lewis Hamilton perfectly mastered the Singapore race. Once again, Ferrari stood out for a risky strategy, which cost Sebastian Vettel the second place, conquered at the start. Thus, Max Verstappen separates the two championship leaders on the podium.
In the heat of Singapore, Lewis Hamilton started with the advantage of pole position, obtained after an exceptional lap in Q3. While the first corner went much better than last year, it was the third corner that witnessed a major collision as the Frenchman Esteban Ocon was sent into the wall by his teammate Sergio Perez, as he attempted a daring maneuver on the outside.
SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED (LAP 1/61)
The Force India teammates make contact and Ocon crunches the wall 💥
It’s a Lap 1 Safety Car for the third year in a row 😱#SingaporeGP 🇸🇬 #F1 pic.twitter.com/Q4PXnHVdRO
— Formula 1 (@F1) September 16
This caused the safety car to intervene but Sebastian Vettel had enough time to get ahead of Max Verstappen, which put him in second position. The race restart was very clean, with no attempts at overtaking or incidents.
Then, Sebastian Vettel decided to take his strategy into his own hands, being the first to pass through the pit lane on the 15th lap. The German bet on switching to ultra-soft tires while Lewis Hamilton, who made his stop on the following lap, opted for soft tires. The two championship leaders therefore took on two different strategies. The Briton was able to regain the lead, especially as Vettel encountered Sergio Perez on his path. The time lost behind the Mexican proved fatal for Vettel as Max Verstappen was able to come out just ahead of the Ferrari.
Kimi Räikkönen and Daniel Ricciardo decided to adopt an offset strategy as the Australian was able to delay his stop until the 28th lap. This allowed him to also switch to ultra-soft tires, while Kimi Räikkönen opted for the softs, which Ferrari had not yet used during the weekend.
On the 35th lap, Sergio Perez lost his nerves while desperately trying to pass Sergey Sirotkin’s Williams as he had been attempting to find an opening for over 20 laps: on the straight line, the Mexican moved towards the Russian. Although both drivers collided, only the Force India driver suffered significant damage, notably with a puncture. The stewards also decided to penalize him with an additional pit stop.
Sergey Sirotkin continued to make headlines as he then mounted a strong defense against Romain Grosjean, just as Lewis Hamilton was catching up to them! This allowed Max Verstappen to get back in the slipstream of the Mercedes. The Dutch driver even tried to make a move, but the championship and race leader remained vigilant. However, Romain Grosjean was penalized with a five-second penalty for not respecting the blue flags, as was Sergey Sirotkin.
On the other hand, Fernando Alonso chose this race to remind the F1 world of his talent by securing a fine 7th place. He was even able to set the fastest lap in the race on the 41st lap as the Spaniard was 55 seconds behind Daniel Ricciardo and 20 seconds ahead of Carlos Sainz. However, it was Kevin Magnussen, on a three-stop strategy, who eventually earned this honorary accolade.
Towards the end of the race, Sebastian Vettel finished completely coasting, allowing himself to fall behind Max Verstappen since Valtteri Bottas was very far away. The German therefore loses more ground to Lewis Hamilton in the championship as there are now 40 points between the two men with only six races left this season.
