F1: Perez holds off Leclerc to win Singapore GP (Update)

Perez was actually investigated for two occurrences of failing to keep within 10 car lengths of the Safety Car during a pair of caution periods. However, the Mexican driver was handed a reprimand for the first of these, which occurred on Lap 10 after Zhou Guanyu and Nicholas Latifi made contact – Perez claiming that his brakes and tires hadn’t been warm enough in the damp conditions to keep pace with the Safety Car.

A five-second penalty and two penalty points on his license, however, were then issued to Perez for the second violation, with the stewards ruling: “Article 55.10 of the FIA Formula 1 Sporting Regulations requires that the leader must keep within 10 car lengths of the Safety Car once deployed until the lights are extinguished.

“Car 11 [Perez] was the lead car on Lap 36 during the second Safety Car period in the race [brought out when Yuki Tsunoda hit the wall]. It was admitted that while the lights of the Safety Car were still on, PER failed to keep within 10 car lengths of the Safety Car between Turn 13 and Turn 14.

“This occurred notwithstanding the fact that the Race Director had issued a warning to the team that PER was not respecting the less than 10 car lengths regulation between Turns 9 and 10. The team passed that warning on to PER.

“We imposed a reprimand on PER for a breach of the same regulation during the first Safety Car deployment during the race.

“As this was the second breach of Article 55.10 by PER during the race and followed an express warning from the Race Director, we determined to impose a five-second time penalty on PER.”

In the closing stages of the foreshortened Singapore Grand Prix, however, Perez was told by Red Bull that he was under investigation for the infringement and encouraged by his race engineer Hugh Bird to “disappear” down the road from the chasing Charles Leclerc.

And with Leclerc ultimately crossing the line 7.595s adrift of Perez, the Mexican did enough to hold onto his fourth career win, as Leclerc and Carlos Sainz completed the podium.

Leading every lap, including two safety car periods and two virtual safety car periods, Red Bull’s Sergio Perez held off the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc to win the Singapore GP in very treacherous conditions.

After the start was delayed by over an hour due to torrential rain in the build-up to the race, Pérez seized the lead as soon as lights went out. The Mexican got better traction off the line and powered past Leclerc as they raced towards the first corner.

It was Perez’s best drive of his career. He wins in Singapore for the first time and raised an arm in victory in a race that ended after 59 of 61 laps due to the 2-hour time limit + 1-lap for a total race time of 2h02m15.238s

Having picked off Leclerc at the start, Perez didn’t put a foot wrong despite everything that was thrown at him – tire wear issues, pit stops, a wet-dry track and multiple VSC periods plus those Safety Car laps.

Perez is being investigated for a possible Safety Car infraction at the end of the last Safety Car period, and may get a 5-second penalty, but he finished 7.6-seconds ahead of Leclerc.

“Certainly my best performance ever,” said Perez.

“I controlled the race, the last few laps were so intense. I gave it everything for the win today. I have no idea what’s going on [with the investigation] I was just told to increase the gap. All in all a fantastic day.”

“I pushed all the way, the bad start put us on the back foot,” said a disappointed Leclerc. “I had a little bit of wheelspin. Difficult [race], a good night’s sleep, and we’ll get ready for Japan.”

Carlos Sainz Jr. grabbed third at the start and stayed there the entire race in the 2nd Ferrari.

“Very tough out there, never got into the rhythm in the wet,” said Sainz. “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.”

The McLarens of Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo rounded out the top-5.

It was a good day for McLaren though. Fourth and fifth with their rival’s Alpine failing to score and suffering reliability woes was pretty much as good as it could have been, and lifts the British team back into fourth in the constructors’.

Points leader, Max Verstappen, had a messy race after getting bogged down at the start and losing 4 positions, and finished 7th after he started in 8th. Verstappen could have finished on the podium if he did not go down the runoff trying to pass Norris.

Lewis Hamilton had an even messier race than Verstappen, including stuffing it in the barrier once, and losing control of his car trying to pass Sebastian Vettel. He started 3rd and finished 9th in a horrible performance, just behind Vettel.

Aston Martin also scored double points, which lifts them slightly clear of AlphaTauri and Haas in the fight for seventh in the constructors’ and all the valuable prize money that comes with it. Both drivers had mostly quiet races, although Vettel was in the thick of the action late on as he tried to keep Hamilton and Verstappen at bay.

Pierre Gasly grabbed the final point in 10th place.

How the race unfolded

After the start was delayed by over an hour due to torrential rain in the build-up to the race, Pérez seized the lead as soon as lights went out. The Mexican got better traction off the line and powered past Leclerc as they raced towards the first corner.

Further back Verstappen bogged down at the start and dropped to P12. The championshiop leader was soon making his way back through the field, however, and he was soon past Magnussen, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda to claim P9.

The Safety Car then made its first appearance of the evening, when Williams’ Nicholas Latifi and Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu tangled in the first sector and with the Chinese driver’s car stuck just off track in Turn 5, the race was quickly neutralized.

When the Safety Car left the track Checo controlled the restart well to hold the lead ahead of Leclerc and Sainz, while further back Verstappen passed Vettel and then AlphaTauri’s take seventh place.

The Dutchman’s next target was Alpine’s Fernando Alonso, but the Spaniard defended well and Verstappen found himself bottled up behind the Alpine driver for the next 10 laps. He was freed on lap 21, however, when Alonso suffered and engine failure and steered his Alpine up an escape road. Verstappen swept past to take sixth place.

The VSC was then deployed when Alex Albon crashed and a power unit failure sidelines Esteban Ocon in the second Alpine, Lewis Hamilton then hit the barriers at Turn 7. The Briton was able to carry but fell back between fourth-placed Lando Norris and Verstappen in sixth.

It was the cue for Leclerc to pit and the Ferrari driver took on medium tires but the stop was slow. Pérez pitted from the lead and after taking on medium tires he was able to comfortably rejoin in the lead. The Mexican was followed to the pit lane by Sainz and then Verstappen who also fitted medium tires.

However, the race was again neutralized just after the Dutchman’s stop when Yuki Tsunoda hit the barriers in Turn 10 and the Safety Car was released.

It was then that Pérez was noted by the stewards for potentially dropping too far off the course car as he led ahead of Leclerc, Sainz and Norris. After the race the Mexican driver was handed a repirmand and a five-second for falling more than 10 car lengths behind the Safety Car. The stewards said they “do not accept that the conditions were such as to make it impossible or dangerous for PER to have maintained the required less than 10 car length gap, but  added that they ” took into account the wet conditions and the difficulties highlighted by PER as mitigatory circumstances for this incident.” In the second decision, the stewards said that the Red Bull driver had ignored a warning from race direction to close the gap and as such was handed the five-second penalty.

The SC left the track at the end of lap 38 and once again Checo controlled the restart perfectly. Further back Verstappen lined up an attack on Norris but when he made the move, he locked up badly and was forced down an escape road. He was able to continue but dropped to P8 and after pitting to shed flat-spotted tires for new softs he rejoined in P14.

Leclerc then began to close in on Pérez. The Mexican was soon on the radio complaining that he was suffering with driveability both under braking and out of corners but despite the setback he doggedly held off the Ferrari driver and with 17 minutes left in the time limited race, Leclerc, managing his tires, backed off and Pérez broke DRS.

Pérez continued to pull away at the front and as the two-hour mark was reached, he completed the final lap with 7.5s seconds in hand.

Leclerc was left with second place ahead of Sainz, while Norris claimed a solid fourth place ahead of McLaren team-mate Daniel Ricciardo. Lance Stroll was sixth for Aston Martin and Verstappen passed the second Aston of Sebastian Vettel on the final lap to claim seventh. Behind Vettel, Hamilton finished ninth and the final point on offer went to Pierre Gasly.

Race Results-59 Laps (Provisional)