By William Hewitt
Three years since its last F1 appearance, Formula 1 returned to the streets of Marina Bay for the 2022 Singapore Grand Prix. Following heavy rain, the race start was delayed by over an hour, and the race finally got away at 14:00 UK time, 21:00 Local time, the track still extremely wet and all cars starting on the green intermediate tyre.
This race was the first race of the season in which a champion could be crowned, so everything had to go perfectly for Max Verstappen, the championship leader. Following a fuel problem in qualifying, however, the reigning champion was stuck in 8th place on the grid, 7 behind his championship rival, Charles Leclerc, who took pole on Saturday.
As the lights went out, polesitter Leclerc was overtaken off the line by Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, another driver still mathematically able to win the championship, but things weren’t much better for Verstappen, who found his car nearly going into anti-stall as he quickly fell back 4 positions. Lewis Hamilton, who, after a nail-biting qualifying found himself in P3, also got overtaken off the line, picking up some wheel spin on the damp track during the second phase of the start, and going side by side with Carlos Sainz down the straight, before leaving the track to avoid contact.
By lap 2 the flying Dutchman managed to make his way back into the points, getting his elbows out and making multiple overtakes on the slippery track. Singapore is famous for having had a safety car at every race it has held, and this would continue in 2022, as on lap 7 Nicholas Latifi made contact with Zhou Guanyu, breaking the suspension on Zhou’s Alfa Romeo, and causing a DNF for both drivers. Verstappen managed to make an overtake on the safety car restart, overtaking the “Lion of Singapore”, Sebastian Vettel, a driver racing for the final time in Marina Bay, having announced his retirement during the summer break.
A second incident occurred on lap 21 as Fernando Alonso pulled over to retire due to an engine failure, not the way the Spaniard hoped to end his record-breaking 350th race start in Formula 1. On the still soaking track, more problems were bound to occur, and they did, on lap 25 as Alex Albon understeered into a wall, making it a double DNF for Williams, and causing a virtual safety car. On lap 28, there was yet another DNF as Esteban Ocon pulled over to the side of the track with smoke billowing out of his engine cover, and oil beginning to leak from under his car. Now a double DNF for Alpine too. On Lap 33 there was another incident, this time involving Lewis Hamilton, the seven-time world champion locking up and going straight into a barrier at turn 7 but managing to keep his Mercedes running and re-joining the race with a damaged front wing. The small crash meant he re-joined right in the middle of the battle for 4th place, between Lando Norris and Max Verstappen. Due to the broken front wing, however, Hamilton had to pit and change it, causing him to tumble down the order to p9.
For George Russell, this race was less than ideal, having had a poor qualifying, the Briton took an engine penalty, making him start in the pitlane and last, but struggled to make up many positions. As he was stuck out of the points, on lap 22, he took a big gamble and switched to slick tyres, much to the amazement of everyone else. It soon became clear that this wasn’t the right decision, and it was only on lap 34-35 that the Mercedes driver started setting fastest sectors, causing a rush of drivers to enter the pits and change to dry tyres. On lap 36, Yuki Tsunoda, on cold mediums, massively understeered, and went straight into the TEC PRO barriers at turn 10, destroying the front of his Alpha Tauri, and causing another safety car.
Now with a time limit, and 34 minutes to go, Verstappen went for an overtake on Lando Norris but suffered from a huge lockup that sent him down the escape road and flat-spotted his tyres so badly that he needed to pit for a new set. Verstappen left the pitlane in 14th, and last, meaning he had work to do if he wanted to get points. This was not the last problem to occur, however, as with 32 minutes to go, George Russell went for an overtake on Mick Schumacher into turn 1, forcing the young German to the edge of the track, and briefly making contact with their wheels. This contact caused punctures for both drivers, leading to both drivers pitting, Mick losing 2 positions, and Russell 1.
With 20 minutes to go, a battle began between race leader Perez and Ferrari rival Leclerc in p2 as Leclerc fought to make an overtake, but Checo was not giving up. The Mexican maintained his position and began to make an even bigger lead, having been told he may be given a time penalty for a safety car infringement earlier in the race. As the time ticked down, Verstappen fought his way through the pack and with 5 minutes to go, he found himself behind his rival from 2021, Lewis Hamilton, who was trying to pass his former rival, Sebastian Vettel. So, with twelve championships between them, and all three drivers within DRS range, a close battle began for a thrilling final few laps. With less than 2 minutes to go, Hamilton went for a dive down the inside of Vettel but was caught out by the wet area of the track, and he went straight on and fell behind Verstappen, who, with one minute to go, managed to get past Vettel and finish in a disappointing 7th place.
Checo on the other hand, was not disappointed, holding on to the lead, and finishing seven and a half seconds ahead of Leclerc, he took an amazing win in the night of Singapore. Leclerc and Sainz finished off the podium positions. Russell managed to take the fastest lap but did not get a point as he was outside the top 10. Following a post-race investigation on Perez’s safety car infringement, he was awarded a 5-second time penalty, but due to his lead on Leclerc, he kept the win.
Photos by @f1 on Instagram.
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