Carlos Sainz wins the Singapore Grand Prix and ends Max Verstappen’s F1 record streak

The Singapore Grand Prix has turned into one of the most interesting races of the current season. For the first time since its inception, the stage was won by someone other than Red Bull drivers. And Max Verstappen, who had won ten previous races, was content with only fifth place this time. The first went to Carlos Sainz, the Spanish Ferrari driver.

The Singapore Grand Prix, officially the 16th, but in fact the 15th on the calendar of the current World Championship (one race included in it – the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix – was cancelled), is usually perceived as the Asian version of the Monaco Grand Prix . Both here and there the route is laid along narrow city streets. In Singapore, as in Monaco, it is terribly difficult to overtake. This means that success in the race depends to a huge extent on qualifications, and the design of the race itself tends to turn into rides in “train” mode. But the Singapore stage in 2023 turned out differently. You could even say that the audience saw exactly what racing should be like. All that was needed was to remove both Red Bull drivers from the equation.

The team bosses have yet to understand what went wrong in Singapore, why neither Max Verstappen nor Sergio Perez were able to get beyond the second qualifying segment, remaining in 11th and 13th places respectively. The Red Bull cars (and all 14 stages that took place in the season remained behind them) were so unconvincing that the same Verstappen, who had not had a misfire in ten races in a row (this is a world record), honestly stated that he would work, at best, to minimize the damage. In general, he succeeded – he came fifth.

Obviously, the Dutchman’s fans did not bring any joy to his misfire. But fans of Ferrari, McLaren, and Mercedes were clearly going to like what was happening on the track. This is especially true, of course, for Scuderia supporters. The team has not known victories since the summer of last year, since then it has been noted only by its now-traditional inability to competently build tactics for the race, which is why it lost even what it seemed like it could not lose. And then Carlos Sainz had a perfect weekend. He was first in qualifying, he was first after the start, he was first at the finish. But it was not at all the same victory as those that Verstappen has been churning out in the last couple of years. He often just needs to drive on cruise control. Sainz had to give a full-fledged general battle to his rivals, even if the Ferrari bosses also contributed to the Spaniard’s victory. They openly, with orders from the pits, held back Charles Leclerc, assigning him the role of a buffer between Sainz and everyone else (Leclerc did not cope with the task brilliantly).

Be that as it may, towards the end of the stage, Carlos Sainz had to show both restraint and ingenuity to fend off the attacks of the Mercedes drivers. George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, after the safety car appeared on the track for the second time, were the only members of the leading group to make a pit stop, hoping to eat up their opponents with fresh tires. The plan almost worked. Both Russell and Hamilton dealt with the same Leclerc effortlessly, gaining almost fifteen seconds from him. Only Lando Norris separated them from the attack on Sainz. The leader of McLaren also already had pretty bad tires, and it seemed that he, like Leclerc, should have become a victim of Mercedes. But Sainz repelled this threat brilliantly. He did not push the car to the maximum, realizing that if Norris fell, they would get to him too. He drove just enough to keep the Briton more than a second behind him, meaning he could use DRS to keep both Russell and Hamilton behind. Such is Sainz’s defensive play, and even with someone else’s hands, which ended in the complete defeat of the enemy. Russell, unable to withstand the stress, flew into the bump stop on the last lap. Hamilton didn’t have time to change anything. Well, Norris already agreed to second place. At the finish line, the riders who took the first three places were separated by less than one and a half seconds.

Thus, Carlos Sainz, for whom the victory in Singapore was only the second race won in his career, interrupted the record streak of both Red Bull in general and Max Verstappen in particular. True, this did not have any negative impact on the Dutchman’s leadership in the overall standings. On the contrary, given that Perez was only eighth, Verstappen increased his lead to 151 points. There are seven rounds left before the end of the championship, and at the end of October, in the USA or Mexico, the Dutchman will probably secure a third title ahead of schedule.

Alexander Petrov