And here’s our report from a chaotic night in Singapore. Thanks for reading!
And today’s champ: “It was certainly my best performance, I controlled the race. The last few laps were so intense. I gave it everything for the win today.” On the investigation: “I have no idea what’s going on I was just told to increase the gap. All in all, a fantastic day.”
Charles Leclerc: “I pushed all the way, but the bad start put us on the back foot. I had a little bit of wheelspin. It was a difficult race – a good night’s sleep now, and we’ll get ready for Japan.”
Carlos Sainz: “It was very tough out there, I never got into the rhythm in the wet. I had to settle a bit for P3 – I was quick towards the end when I managed to build a bit of confidence. It’s crazy how long it takes here to dry.”
How they finished (if they finished):
1 Perez (Red Bull)
2 Leclerc (Ferrari)
3 Sainz (Ferrari)
4 Norris (McLaren)
5 Ricciardo (McLaren)
6 Stroll (Aston Martin)
7 Verstappen (Red Bull)
8 Vettel (Aston Martin)
9 Hamilton (Mercedes)
10 Gasly (Alpha Tauri)
11 Bottas (Alfa Romeo)
12 Magnussen (Haas)
13 Schumacher (Haas)
14 Russell (Mercedes)
Footnote: Ferrari reckon Perez was within 10-car lengths of the safety car not once but twice – so two five-second time penalties would see him demoted to second. Seems unlikely … but we’ll see.
Sergio Perez wins the Singapore GP!
The Mexican cruises over the finish line to take a hugely hard-earned victory in spectacularly tough conditions. Charles Leclerc follows him, then Carlos Sainz. Then it’s Norris, Ricciardo, Stroll, Verstappen, Vettel, Hamilton, Gasly. (Vertstappen nipped ahead of Vettel at the very, very last.)
Updated
1min to go: Perez has opened up that gap to 6secs, which means he could survive a five-second penalty. Verstappen is desperate to see off Vettel, who is defending with his life. Final lap.
2mins to go: Hamilton makes the move on Vettel but gets it wrong and Verstappen roars past him for P8! Up top, Perez is sailing towards a comfortable win, investigation permitting.
3 mins to go: Russell gets that fastest lap! Small mercies for a driver who’s endured a nightmare race. The Vettel-Hamilton-Verstappen trio are still in the tightest of clusters, but no overtaking yet.
6mins to go: Perez is told about the investigation over the radio and gives a bewildered squeal. Verstappen is right on Hamilton’s gearbox now, well within DRS range, with Vettel just in front of them.
10mins to go: Perez nabs fastest lap back from Leclerc before Russell goes in for new softs – Mercedes want that bonus point.
12mins to go: More drama: Sergio Perez will face an investigation for a potential safety car infringement. So he could finish first without knowing whether he’s won.
13mins to go: Leclerc isn’t done yet – he clocks up fastest lap, while Verstappen surges into the points, seeing off Bottas at long last, then Gasly. Hamilton in P8 is his next target.
Updated
16mins to go: A tiny error from Leclerc allows Perez to edge away in front, stretching his lead to a second. Norris is 2.7secs behind Sainz, who sits in the final podium spot. And still no joy for Verstappen in his mini-mission to overtake Bottas.
19mins to go: Verstappen picks off Magnussen and eyes Bottas for a consolation point. Perez continues to cling masterfully to his lead.
22mins to go: The cars are speeding up now, with Verstappen setting a fastest lap before being answered quickly by Leclerc – he’s still half a second behind Perez, who keeps escaping him on the straights.
Updated
25mins to go: Now we have DRS, the key battles right now are Norris chasing Sainz for P3 and Hamilton chasing Vettel for P7. Neither has made their move yet; both are anxious to do so.
28mins to go: It’ll be the clock rather than the full 62 laps that decides when this race ends. And Leclerc is going after Perez like a wasp, the gap just over half a second. And DRS has been enabled!
Lap 42/61: So then. 29 minutes left on the clock and Perez leads Leclerc – who’s hot on the leader’s heels – then it’s Sainz, Norris and Ricciardo.
Lap 41/61: Disaster for Verstappen! He attacks Norris at the restart but he locks up and hurtles off track at turn seven. “Ahhh, I need to pit,” he groans, and drops from fifth to rock-bottom.
Lap 39/61: The safety car ends, and it’s Perez leading Leclerc, Sainz, Norris and Verstappen. Hamilton’s crash has taken him down to P9. There’s 35 minutes left on the clock.
Lap 38/61: All remaining drivers are now on slick tyres – Ricciardo and Bottas on softs, the rest medium.
Lap 37/61: So that’s Zhou, Latifi, Alonso, Albon, Ocon and Tsunoda having ended their race early. George Russell is on for a podium spot at this rate.
Tsunoda retires
Six down now, they’re dropping like flies. Tsunoda is the latest to fly into the barrier, and we now have a full safety car: music to the ears of Norris and Sainz, who had resisted the pit stop a minute ago.
Lap 36/61: Leclerc pits for mediums – a slow stop – and a lap later is followed by Perez, Sainz and Verstappen.
How they stand going into lap 35:
1 Perez
2 Leclerc
3 Sainz
4 Norris
5 Hamilton
6 Verstappen
7 Vettel
8 Stroll
9 Ricciardo
10 Schumacher
11 Gasly
12 Tsunoda
13 Bottas
14 Magnussen
15 Russell
Lap 33/61: Bad moment for Hamilton! He veers into the barrier at turn 7, but gets out of it quickly and just about manages to rejoin the race ahead of Verstappen, with only Norris having leapfrogged him.
Lap 33/61: Leclerc – three seconds behind Perez and 17 ahead of Sainz – clocks up fastest lap. Verstappen goes for Norris again but again is frustrated: no dice.
Lap 31/61: The VSC ends. “I’m losing so much time behind this guy, he’s really slow,” barks Hamilton over the radio – “this guy” being Carlos Sainz, who is keeping him off the podium spots. Meanwhile, Verstappen attacks Norris at the green flag but gets his angles wrong and has the hit the breaks. “Very dangerous there,” tuts Norris.
Updated
Ocon retires!
Now it’s Esteban Ocon whose car chunters to a halt – “Failure failure failure!” he says. And he’s out. VSC time.
Albon retires
Lap 26/61: Albon crashes! Bad error, straight into the wall, and it’s another VSC. And it’s an unhappy return for Albon, who makes it back into the pits but his car is too damaged to continue. And then there were 16.
Lap 23/61: The virtual safety car has ended, and it’s still Perez leading Leclerc, Sainz, Hamilton and Norris. Meanwhile Russell’s decision to swap to slicks has demonstrated the thin line between bravery and stupidity: he is 22secs behind Albon at the back, and counting.
Updated
Lap 22/61: George Russell pits for new slicks – the first and only driver to do so. “That’s brave,” notes Verstappen.
Alonso out of the race
The Spaniard stops on the track. “Engine, engine!” he says as he disembarks. And we have a virtual safety car.
Updated
Lap 19/61: Changes imminent? “Tyres becoming more slick,” says Norris. Sainz – who has annoyed Hamilton by holding him up – reckons it’s “not far off” time for slicks. Verstappen says it’s still too wet.
Lap 18/61: Sainz is also fretting about his tyre wear as Perez clocks up a fastest lap. Over the radio, Norris is ordered to “to make these inters last longer than everyone else’s”.
Lap 16/61: Word from the stewards is that there’ll be no further action on the Verstappen-Magnussen incident. Perez is worrying about his front-right tyre, which is wearing quickly. And George Russell remains stuck back in P16, behind Bottas.
Updated
Lap 14/61: As the quarter-way mark approaches, Perez leads Leclerc by 1.4sec, with Sainz, Hamilton and Norris on their tail. Behind them, Verstappen is closing in on Alonso for P6.
Lap 12/62: The stewards will be having a look at the incident between Latifi and Zhou – in which the former squeezed the latter into the wall – as well as the early contact between Verstappen and Magnussen.
Lap 11/61: None of the drivers have opted for a bonus pit stop this early in the race. It’s goodbye safety car now – and with a newly bunched-up field, Verstappen makes up two places, picking off Vettel and Gasly for P7.
Latifi retires
Lap 10/61: The Williams mechanics scurry around Latifi’s car, but to no avail. The Canadian is forced to join Zhou – who’s annoyed at him after the incident – in ending his afternoon early.
Zhou retires
Lap 10/61: Zhou has stopped by the side of the track and has retired – he ploughed into the wall after Latifi moved ahead of him. Latifi in turn has a puncture, and is heading back to the pits. And we have a safety car.
Lap 9/61: Verstappen’s pursuit of Vettel continues in vain – for now – the German subbornly refusing to offer any way past.
Lap 7/61: Perez and Leclerc are pulling away of the chasing pack – a six-second gap now. The track is “not drying up very quickly” Lando Norris tells us.
Lap 5/61: Verstappen – who may have made contact with Magnussen at the start – passes Tsunoda for P9 and sets his sights on Vettel. That Hamilton gripe: “I told you about these tyres,” he said to his team. “You need to listen to me in the future. No grip!”
Lap 4/61: Perez has opened up just under a one-second lead over Leclerc. Then it’s Sainz, Hamilton and Norris. Hamilton isn’t happy with his tyres, apparently disagreeing with his team about them before the race: he wanted to start on full wets but was overruled.
Updated
Lap 2/61: “Magnussen has the end plate loose,” Verstappen tells his team on the radio. Grass. Hamilton went off track after a battle with Sainz, but they’ll be no investigation.
Lap 1/61: Perez took advantage of a slow getaway from Leclerc and saw him off at the first corner. Meanwhile at turn seven, Albon lurched off track but managed to pick himself up and continue. Verstappen has sunk down to 12th after a hesitant start that saw him caught in traffic.
And we’re off! Perez passes Leclerc straight off the bat. Hamilton goes wide into turn two, allowing Sainz to sneak into third.
The formation lap is underway, with all cars on the intermediate tyres. But when do they make the switch to slicks?
How they start:
1 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
2 Sergio Perez (Red Bull)
3 Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
4 Carlos Sainz Jnr (Ferrari)
5 Fernando Alonso (Alpine)
6 Lando Norris (McLaren)
7 Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri)
8 Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
9 Kevin Magnussen (Haas)
10 Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri)
11 Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
12 Mick Schumacher (Haas)
13 Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin)
14 Guanyu Zhou (Alfa Romeo)
15 Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo)
16 Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren)
17 Esteban Ocon (Alpine)
18 Alexander Albon (Williams)
19 Nicholas Latifi (Williams)
20 George Russell (Mercedes)
For those wondering which inters and wets each driver has available: here's a graphic explaining who has what #SingaporeGP #Fit4F1 🌧 pic.twitter.com/ePlzFMXPb5
— Pirelli Motorsport (@pirellisport) October 2, 2022
A point of admin. I misread the rulebook – the three-hour race window is from the new start time, ie from 14:05, not 13:00.
Buckle up.
We wrap out our movie game with a winner: David Flynn submits The Truman Show rain scene – a great scene and a perfect film. Good afternoon, good evening and goodnight.
Right then. T-minus 10 minutes until the formation lap.
As the national anthem plays, here’s Toto Wolff: “If you feel the slipperiness of the floor tonight, this is about who can stay on track in the beginning and who can time the safety cars.”
On the grid, Martin Brundle corners Will-i-Am and delivers the inevitable “let’s get it started” crack. Wince. Next up it’s Pierre Gasly – “A little bit of standing water, but not too bad,” the driver yelps over his shoulder while fleeing the cameras.
Some citizen journalism from the fan zone in Singapore:
@A_Hess it was so wet in the #SingaporeGP fan zone we even had otters pic.twitter.com/tAZnYG4lXP
— Rixon (@rixontaiwan) October 2, 2022
Whether or not we’ll get a standing start is still unconfirmed – though common sense would suggest it’s a foregone conclusion. And the treacherous conditions make themselves known as Verstappen screeches into the run-off area having gone straight on at turn seven.
Blithely inventing his own rules, Ian Moore writes in with some nominations of his own: “Best wet races? Germany 2018 is right up there, not just for a superlative drive from Hamilton, but also Vettel’s pantomime villain crashing out in pantomime fashion in front his home crowd! Best wet lap: Senna, Donington ‘93 (boring race otherwise, and Prost made 7 (SEVEN!) pitstops for tyres!!).” Any more for any more?
Meanwhile, the pit lane is open and the drivers are hitting the track. Verstappen has already hurtled back in to swap his full wet weather tyres to intermediates.
Updated
It isn’t over! Steph in Potters Bar wipes away the tears to submit weepie-romance favourite The Notebook – impeccable taste.
Back on matters F1, Xan Bird – who may or may not be wiping away tears – says: “What is the point of F1 having wet tyres if we are never going to see them used in a race? Not having wet races detracts from the experience of F1 and means we don’t get to see the skills of the wet weather experts! It’s just a bit ridiculous.”
Mustafa Coban comes in with a classic from the late-90s VHS action-movie market: “Hard Rain. Christian Slatering it down all through the film.” Well played sir.
“I’d have to go with Jurassic Park,” says James Crowder. “Simply because it involves a T-Rex.” Good point well made.
Aiden Mcfarlane give us: “Rush, Seven Samurai, In Cold Blood, and of course Rain Man". Chortle.
Christian Horner speaks: “It’s a very different race now today. As a street circuit, it’s harder to overtake – but now it’s a completely different ball game with braking distances extended. It was our mistake yesterday, hands up for that, and lessons have been learnt. It’s time for us to bounce back today.”
Early rain-scene nominations for The Shawshank Redemption and Singing in the Rain. Some would say “too obvious” (not me of course). In the meantime, soak up our report from yesterday’s qualifying:
An announcement: the start procedure will begin at 13:05, the pit lane will open 20 minutes later and the formation lap is scheduled for 14:05.
TL;DR: Get the kettle on.
The Sky Sports team are currently living out every broadcaster’s worst fear: filling dead time. Right now we are getting live commentary of people sweeping water off the track, alongside pictures of the very same. For the liveblogger, of course, filling dead time is never anything less than a delight. So: favourite film scenes in the pouring rain? I nominate Blade Runner and Four Weddings.
Updated
We’ll get another update in 15 minutes apparently. If we get a shortened race, then points will only be awarded if we the leader completes at least two laps must be completed without a safety car. And there are three possible bands of reduced points: Up to 25% of distance would be 6 points for a win; 25-50% means 13 points for winning; and 50-75% is 19 points for the winner. After that it’s full points – which Verstappen will need to clinch that title today.
In half an hour, the three-hour clock – within which the race needs to be finished – starts ticking down. Not to be confused with the two-hour clock, which starts when the race commences … and within which it must also be completed. Got that? Good.
Updated
The best ever race in the rain? We Own the Night (2007). They’ll be none of that today though – as long as it’s chucking it down, the cars will remain in the garage. And the pit lane is currently flooded, so the start procedure isn’t even possible.
Holy mac ‘n’ cheese balls 😳#WeAreWilliams #SingaporeGP pic.twitter.com/bIfIWkc3Sm
— Williams Racing (@WilliamsRacing) October 2, 2022
More urgently though, it is absolutely tipping it down in Singapore, and the start of the race will be delayed – although we don’t know by how long. An update is expected in 10 minutes or so.
Some news: George Russell will start from the pit lane after taking a new power unit, taking him above his number of allocated engine parts. He qualified 11th and has taken a top-five spot in every race he’s finished this season – a record he’ll do well to maintain today.
Preamble
Never mind one victory lap, how about 309? That’s the treat that’ll await Max Verstappen if he manages to clinch the F1 title this afternoon. Japan, US, Mexico, Brazil, Abu Dhabi – all five could be rendered redundant, at least as far as the championship is concerned, if things go the Dutchman’s way in Singapore today.
The small print: a hell of a lot would have to go his way. Not only has Verstappen – starting from eighth after a troublesome qualifying – got a gruelling task on his hands to overhaul Charles Leclerc in pole, he also needs to take the fastest lap and hope Leclerc and Sergio Pérez, who start first and second, finish below eighth or third respectively. Unlikely? Yes. Impossible? Most certainly not.
Exactly when the championship is sealed may seem like a point of mere administration but it also serves as a barometer of greatness: only Nigel Mansell and Michael Schumacher have ever sealed the deal so early. Verstappen, a would-be great whose sights are not just on titles but dynasties, will know this better than anyone.
The subplots? The return of Mercedes: after a nightmare start that effectively wrote off their season, the team has been creeping slowly back into contention, race by race, and Lewis Hamilton was the fastest man on track by far early in the final session yesterday, eventually losing his edge and settling for third. But on a circuit he loves, the seven-times champion will be desperate to convince the world that he will be back among the challengers next season. That said, the struggles of George Russell, whose “car let him down” according to Toto Wolff, suggests Mercedes’ engineering problems are not behind them yet. Watch this space.
And some reason for cheer: Alex Albon makes a remarkable return just three weeks after spending nearly 24 hours in intensive car having stopped breathing following an appendectomy three weeks ago.
But until that title is definitively wrapped up, it’s all eyes on one man. Not even Devon Loch could muck it up from here … right?
