Perez Takes His ‘Greatest Win’ Among Chaotic Singapore Grand Prix

Sergio Perez takes his fourth win in an eventful Singapore Grand Prix pushing the championship battle on for another race with Verstappen struggling all weekend.

While Perez was able to celebrate his race win, arguably his most dominant race, his teammate Max Verstappen seemed to struggled all weekend, having a tough qualifying after having to bail out of his final lap due to fears of being unable to provide a fuel sample, something every driver must provide to avoid a penalty.

From here, things only seemed to get worse; starting from eighth, the defending champion almost put his car into anti-stall, coming away very slowly off the line, leading to him fighting even harder to have any hope of winning the race and championship off the line.

Max Verstappen pushing on first lap trying to pass Kevin Magnussen and stuck behind Lance Stroll.

However, all hopes were lost for the Dutchman when trying a late move on Norris, locking up his tyres and going off into an escape road. coming back on the track in eighth but needing to pit bringing him back out in last.

Fighting valiantly, Verstappen brought the car back home in seventh after a last moment move to take Vettel after overtaking Lewis Hamilton a few laps beforehand when putting himself on the wet side of the track, sliding him nearly into the back of Vettel and having to take a wide line, allowing Verstappen through.

Charles Leclerc and Ferrari struggled to bring home the win and get a grasp on the championship again seeing Perez take the lead on the very first corner of the race.

Slippery when wet: Sainz struggles with pace throughout the race, taking home third after fending off Hamilton and Norris.

Beyond a few exciting laps once the safety car returned into the pits with the first dry action of the race, Leclerc struggled to stay close to the rear end of the Red Bull. Their hopes of a race win now rely on a penalty for the Mexican, who has to visit the stewards for allegedly not staying within 10 lengths of the safety car. Perez was able to create a gap beyond 5 seconds from Leclerc however, which should mean that he keeps the win even with the 5 second penalty likely to be given for such a penalty.

Lewis Hamilton saw his weekend implode after getting frustrated behind Sainz and hitting the wall when braking too late. While no significant damage was achieved, his slow pitstop and inability to warm up his mediums sufficiently enough led to him walking away with only 2 points added to his total.

George Russell finished outside the points after choosing to start from the pitlane, taking engine penalties after qualifying P11 and then Mercedes making the wrong tyre decision onto dries. While a poor weekend for Mercedes, it was likely Hamilton was wanting to close the gap to his teammate even further than he did. Hamilton now sits 33 points behind Russell.

Watch the moment of collision between Zhou Guanyu and Nicholas Latifi.

Among other results, both Alpine and Williams saw double DNFs with both Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon seeing engine issues while Williams retired from driver mistakes.

This proved costly for Alpine with McLaren able to capitalise on safety car pit stops onto dries and finishing 4th and 5th, putting them four points ahead of the Enstone team in the battle for fourth in the Constructors Championship.

Daniel Ricciardo takes his first top 5 finish since Jeddah 2021.

Verstappen looks to take his second world championship in a row in Japan, Honda’s home. With Ferrari looking out of both championship fights, there is some consolation is Mercedes’ poor weekend from them, however, it is most likely there wish they were looking ahead rather than behind.