Luke’s Weekend Review – Singapore GP 2023

On lap 19 Logan Sargeant loses his front wing when his car understeered into turn 8 and he went straight into the barrier, he manages to get going again with his front wing stuck to the side of his car doing loads of damage to the floor and laying loads of debris all over the track. Sargeant manages to make it back to the pits and the Safety car also comes out. Everyone but Red Bull and Valtteri Bottas took this opportunity to take a cheap pitstop and go in for fresh rubber. Down at Ferrari they decided to double stack their drivers who at the time were running in 1^st and 2^nd. Leclerc pulled back to create a bit of a gap so that they can double stack without losing any time, but I think he pulled back a bit too much as when Leclerc’s stop was done, he had to remain stationary as Hamilton was coming in and, in the process, losing 2 spots to Norris and Russell. At this stage Verstappen and Perez had also made it past as after everyone pitted and behind the safety car the Red Bull drivers were driving in 2^nd and 4^th. Fernando Alonso picked up a 5 second penalty in the process of pitting as on his way in the pits he went over the white line and back over it as he locked up on the last corner into the pits.

After the safety car came in, we had loads of action and the Red Bull drivers were like sitting ducks due to their hards being 20 laps older than everyone else around them. This race was the first time this season that we have seen Max Verstappen being overtaken on track which was a very rare sight, and it was very welcomed by all F1 fans. Perez was also being eaten alive as Hamilton makes it past him while Russell and Norris make it past Max. It seems that this early safety car really ruined Red Bull’s strategy and both drivers had a tough race ahead of them yet again.

Later in the race we see Kevin Magnussen being shown the black and white flag for forcing Pierre Gasly off the track and after a long battle between the 2 swapping places we see Magnussen going deep into turn 1 on lap 36 which opened the door for Gasly to get past him, this wasn’t the end for Magnussen however as on this lap he loses 5 positions. On lap 37 we see some good action as well between Alonso, Perez, and Esteban Ocon as we see Alonso go for a move on Perez where he ended up going a bit wide and Perez managed to get right past him again, due to him going wide, Ocon saw the opportunity and managed to get past him as well. Ocon went ahead to get past Perez as well 2 laps later as he forced Perez to take a different line and get better traction out the corner. At this stage Perez’s tyres were gone and Alonso and Gasly also gets past Perez which makes it 3 places in 1 lap, at the end of lap 39 he decides to pit for mediums, Perez comes out plum last however and had another feat ahead of him to try and recover this race. Verstappen also pits at the end of lap 40 which brings him out in 15^th, this however should give Perez and Verstappen a bit of an advantage as most of the drivers were now on 20 laps old Hards.

On lap 43 it was Heartbreak for Ocon as after a brilliant drive we see him pull over to the side at Turn 2 with a loss of drive on his Alpine this was due suspected gearbox issues for Ocon and understandably we hear Ocon screaming in frustration on the radio as he knew he was in for a good result. This incident brings out the Virtual Safety Car and neutralises the race for a bit however the top 5 had just gone past the pit lane entry and didn’t manage to take a cheap stop. This didn’t stop Mercedes to play a massive gamble though, with a nice gap behind Leclerc who was driving behind them, both Mercedes drivers pit for fresh mediums on a double stack dropping about 10 seconds behind Leclerc and about 17 seconds off the lead. Alonso also pits on lap 44 to serve his penalty and get some softs on to try and salvage the race but this didn’t go to plan as the team had issues changing his tyres leaving him standing still for 25 seconds which is a very long time given that a usual pit stop takes between 2-4 seconds, this obviously brings Alonso out in last and not much to do but finish outside the top 10.

With both Mercedes drivers pitting for mediums the top 3 who at the time were Sainz, Norris and Leclerc had to push and stop managing the pace to defend from the flying Mercedes cars coming from behind. With 10 laps to go Russell was already on the back of Leclerc and despite Leclerc’s efforts to keep Russell behind him, he was not able to hold him off and by lap 54 Russell was past and so does Hamilton. The chase was now on for the front 2 drivers, and it was all to play for with 5 laps to go. This is where we see the cunningness of Sainz come out, we see Sainz drop back a bit to bring Norris into DRS range to help his defence against the Mercedes. Due to this both Norris and Sainz were able to stay ahead of the Silver Arrows and this drive earnt Sainz the driver of the day award which in my opinion was very well deserved.

With what Sainz and Norris were doing we see Russell push so hard to try and get past Norris and Hamilton was also right on the back of him pushing him along and this is where we see Russell lose sight of the track a bit and clips his back wheel coming into the braking zone of the penultimate corner which sent him straight into the barriers, this was absolutely devastating for the brit and he was very annoyed with himself as he should have been on that podium. Sainz takes the chequered flag after an amazing drive especially in the closing stages of the race getting him his 2^nd win with Ferrari and the 1^st win this season who was not a Red Bull driver, it was also a Red Bull free podium which was very much welcomed however hats off to Max as he managed to finish in 5^th only 2 tenths off Leclerc in 4^th.

Top 10 were Carlos Sainz, Lando Norris, Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc, Max Verstappen, Pierre Gasly, Oscar Piastri, Sergio Perez, Liam Lawson, and Kevin Magnussen. Also, worth mentioning that Liam Lawson got his first F1 points in Singapore which is no easy task so shout out to him for managing this.

What did you guys think of the Singapore GP? Who do you think was the biggest winners and the biggest losers of the Singapore GP? We now head to Suzuka for the Japanese GP next week.