What happened at the chaotic 2022 Singapore Grand Prix
There was no lack of action in F1’s return to Singapore
Daniel Riccardo driving his RB14 at the 2018 Singapore Grand Prix (credit: Hanson Lu - Upsplash)
After being removed from the 2020 and 2021 race calendars due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Marina Bay street circuit in Singapore was once again part of the F1 circus. Due to the heat and humidity, Singapore is often considered to be the most grueling race of the F1 season, with rainy conditions for most of the weekend, and drivers being at best a couple of years removed from racing at this track there were numerous driver errors that led to quite the eventful race.
Before the race even began, the weekend had thrown us a curveball. In qualifying, championship leader Max Verstappen’s Red Bull ran out of fuel. He would still start the race in eighth, but on a weekend where (with some luck) he could clinch his second career driver championship which would also be back-to-back drivers championships, his job became much more difficult.
On race day itself, things did not go as planned, the race start time was delayed an hour due to a massive rainstorm.
Even when the rain did stop, that didn’t mean the track wasn’t wet, drivers started on intermediate tires and many got poor starts due to the wetness of the surface.
Some drivers that lost out on the start were Zhou Ganyu, Lewis Hamilton, and Max Verstappen who slid all the way down to 13th on the first lap, making a frustrating weekend even more frustrating.
It was the opposite of frustration for Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez, as right before turn one he moved himself up from second into first, snatching the position from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
Alex Albon was the first driver to show us how difficult the track truly could be. Albon, who was returning to the F1 grid this weekend after missing the last race in Monza due to appendicitis, had fought back from post-surgery complications, but he could not fight his FW44 to stay on the wet track. This would be a common occurrence throughout the race for different drivers, as grip levels remained low for most of the night.
After lap one Verstappen started to charge up the field, he and Kevin Magnussen made some contact, which resulted in the Haas driver having to replace his front wing by order of the race stewards.
After making in into the top 10 Verstappen’s surge slowed down considerably, due to faster cars, better defending, and an abundance of safety cars.
One such safety car was brought out on lap seven after the second Williams driver, Nicholas Latifi, squeezed Zhou Ganyu into the wall. Zhou had to retire from the race due to the crash breaking his Alfa Romeo’s right steering arm. Latifi had to retire from the race due to this incident as well. Also during lap seven, Mercedes Driver George Russell overshot his overtake on Zhou’s teammate Valterri Bottas, and made contact with his wing.
After the end of the safety car period on lap 11, Verstappen continued his chase up the grid passing the Aston Martin of Sebastian Vettel and the Alpha Tauri of Pierre Gasly to slot into seventh position. Vettel, who is retiring at the end of the season, has had lots of success at the Singapore circuit during his career, winning five of his 53 races at the track, including the last win of his career which came in 2019. Vettel’s five wins at the Singapore GP are the most of any driver.
On lap 21 Fernando Alonso retired due to his Alpine’s Renault engine failing. This was a premature end to Alonso’s 350th career race.
Lap 23 saw George Russell and the Mercedes team make a huge gamble, as in still drying track conditions the medium compound slick tires were fitted on his car. With no grooves to disperse water, the move was risky, and with Russell sliding onto the track while leaving the pitlane, it didn’t look like the right one. Russell became the guinea pig for teams as they watched him struggle with grip.
After retirements on laps 27 and 28 due to Albon breaking his wing and Esteban Ocon suffering an engine failure in the other Alpine the track started to change, the track was on the brink of being dry enough for effective slick tire running.
By the end of lap 35, most drivers had come into the pits to put on slick tires, with Lewis Hamilton also coming in for a new front wing after sliding off the track at turn seven on lap 33 and smashing his Mercedes into the wall, causing him to fall down the order from fourth to ninth.
On lap 36, Yuki Tsunoda crashed hard into the wall at turn 10. Unlike Hamilton, Tsunoda would not be able to continue, and his crash brought out a safety car. Tsunoda, who just signed a contract last week to return to Alpha Tauri in 2023, took full responsibility for his crash saying “I just [made] a mistake by myself, just completely missed the breaking point.” adding on “Completely my fault, no excuses”.
The safety car was perfect timing for McLaren. As the grid slowed down and got bunched up McLaren was able to pit both of their drivers for a cheap stop. Lando Norris came out of the pits in fourth, and Daniel Riccardo made the jump up to sixth.
When the safety car came into the pits, the lap counter became a countdown timer from 35 minutes as F1 races cannot exceed two hours plus one lap.
With 33 minutes left in the race, Verstappen tried to make the move on Norris for fourth but had a humongous lockup, flat spotting his tires and forcing him to pit. Verstappen came out of the pits in fourteenth place, which had become last place, forcing him to fight up the order once again.
Shortly after Verstappen’s moment, George Russell made contact with Haas driver Mick Schumacher. After the race, Russell made it clear he felt he gave Schumacher enough room, but race replay shows that that wasn’t the case. Singapore was a tough race for the young British driver, Russell needs to start being more aware of his surroundings going forward.
As the last thirty minutes of the race ticked by Max Verstappen found his way back into the points, but the title clinching moment would have to wait another day. Charles Leclerc was able to put some pressure on Sergio Perez, but when the checkered flag fell the gap had expanded, and he was second to Sergio Perez.
The win was the second of Perez’s season (the other coming at Monaco), and the fourth of his career. Perez and Leclerc were joined on the podium by Leclerc’s Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz.
The drama of F1 wasn’t quite done though. Perez was summoned by the stewards after the race for allegedly failing to keep within ten car lengths of the safety car during the final safety car period. After an investigation, the stewards decided to levy a five-second time penalty against Perez for his actions, but due to finishing 7.595 seconds in front of Leclerc, he kept the win.
Going into round 18 in Japan at the Suzuka circuit Verstappen will have the chance to put the frustration of the Singapore GP behind him and clinch the 2022 World Drivers Championship. Perez could make the championship a Red Bull 1-2 if he could outscore Leclerc by 3 points. McLaren meanwhile looks to grow the gap between themselves and Alpine after passing the French team for fourth place in the World Constructors Championship in Singapore.
Here are the complete results from the 2022 Singapore Grand Prix:
P1 - Sergio Perez - Red Bull Racing
P2 - Charles Leclerc - Ferrari
P3 - Carlos Sainz - Ferrari
P4 - Lando Norris - McLaren
P5 - Daniel Riccardo - McLaren
P6 - Lance Stroll - Aston Martin
P7 - Max Verstappen - Red Bull Racing
P8 - Sebastian Vettel - Aston Martin
P9 - Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes-AMG
P10 - Pierre Gasly - Alpha Tauri
P11 - Valtteri Bottas - Alfa Romeo
P12 - Kevin Magnussen - Haas
P13 - Mick Schumacher - Haas
P14 - George Russell - Mercedes-AMG
DNF - Yuki Tsunoda - Alpha Tauri
DNF - Esteban Ocon - Alpine
DNF - Alex Albon - Williams
DNF - Fernando Alonso - Alpine
DNF - Nicholas Latifi - Williams
DNF - Zhou Guanyu - Alfa Romeo
