Round 17 – Singapore
Introduction
Round 17 of the Formula One World Driver’s Championship took place in Singapore. It was a sprint race weekend, which means that drivers sacrifice two practice sessions in order to have a shorter qualifying session and race on top of the normal qualifying and race. The weekend looked like this: one practice session and sprint qualifying on Friday, sprint race and normal qualifying on Saturday, and normal race on Sunday. This was the first time that Singapore had held a sprint race since it was added to the calendar in 2008, and I believe it’s the last sprint race of the season. George Russell took a grid penalty due to a power unit change, so he started the race from the back of the grid.
Sprint Qualifying – Friday, October 9
Cadillac sent their cars out first, which did absolutely nothing for them because they didn’t make it out of the first qualifying session. Checo Perez did get pole, but then he hit the wall and caused a yellow flag. Lewis Hamilton took pole and Franco Colapinto took p2. Pierre Gasly also took p2, which bumped Franco down to p3. A red flag was called with six minutes left in the session so the marshals could sweep up the debris from Checo’s crash, and Max Verstappen was noted for overtaking Lewis under a yellow flag. (They investigated it after the session; Max didn’t get a penalty.) Lando Norris swapped out his steering wheel during the red flag, and then Cadillac sent their cars out first again, which didn’t accomplish anything except getting Checo noted for an unsafe release.
Charles Leclerc took p2 and George Russell took p3 despite reporting that it felt like he didn’t have any power. Kimi Antonelli took p4 and then Nico Hulkenberg stole it. Lando took p3, Oliver Bearman took p8, and then Liam Lawson took p8. Oscar Piastri took p4, and Max Verstappen took pole by two tenths of a second. Esteban Ocon took p13, Isack Hadjar took p4, and George Russell took p2. Lance Stroll, Arvid Lindblad, Alex Albon, Valtteri Bottas, Carlos Sainz, and Checo Perez were all out in the first qualifying session.
The start of the second session was delayed due to issues with the timing page. Max took pole with six minutes left in the session. George took p2 and then Kimi took it from George. Liam Lawson took p4, and the Audis qualified p5 and p6, which is impressive for them. Pierre took p3. Lewis took pole with five minutes left in the session, and Charles took it immediately after that. Lando took p3 and Oscar took p6, Isack took p11, and George and Kimi qualified p8 and p5, respectively. George managed to improve to p4. Franco Colapinto, Nico Hulkenberg, Oliver Bearman, Gabriel Bortoleto, Fernando Alonso, and Esteban Ocon were all eliminated in the second session.
The third qualifying session was also delayed. Lando took pole with four minutes left in the session, and Oscar qualified p2. George and Kimi qualified p3 and p4, and Charles took pole with three minutes left in the session. Lewis qualified p3. Max took pole, Charles qualified p2, and Lando qualified p3. George managed to snatch p2 from Charles, and Oscar qualified p4, which bumped Lando down to p5. Kimi was all the way down in p7, which was surprising but not entirely unwelcome.
Sprint – Saturday, October 10
The start of the sprint was delayed due to rain, and the formation laps were held behind the safety car. George managed to get past Max for first place, and Lewis slipped up to p3. Oliver Bearman gained three positions on the opening lap, and George went wide and crashed out of the race. The safety car came out again, and Lance DNFed again. So did Checo. Max, Lewis, and Charles all pit under the safety car, and both Franco and Isack also DNFed. Oliver Bearman was in p8, and Gabriel, Valtteri, and Alex all DNFed, bringing the total number of drivers that didn’t finish the race up to nine. Lando decided that he could fit alongside Oscar and took him out, which meant that instead of getting multiple points, McLaren only got one. Max won, Lewis finished second and Charles finished third. Max now has fourteen sprint race wins, which is the record for most sprints won by a driver. (The record for the second most sprint wins is shared between George and Lando; they both have four.)
Qualifying – Saturday, October 10
Esteban Ocon found the wall very early on in the first session of qualifying. He managed to reverse and make his way back on track, though, so it didn’t affect anything. The same thing happened to Lance Stroll. Lando and Lewis both took pole with twelve minutes left in the session. Isack Hadjar’s engine turned off but he managed to turn it back on and continue with the session. George took p4, and Max took pole with ten minutes left in the session. Lando took pole a minute later, and Franco took p5. Oscar took p2, Liam took p6, Arvid took p10, George took p6 from Liam, Lance took p10 from Arvid, and Charles took p5. Isack was having a gearbox issue. Nico took p5, and then Oliver took p5, and Pierre took p7. Lewis took pole with four minutes left in the session, and Kimi took p3. His time was deleted because he went off the track, so he got bumped down to p9. Isack was out due to mechanical issues and he hadn’t managed to set a time, so he’d be dead last. Fernando, Alex, Lance, Checo, Valtteri, and Isack were all out in the first session.
George took pole with eleven minutes left in the second session, and then Kimi immediately took pole. Lando took p3, and Lewis took pole with ten minutes left. Oscar took p5 and Arvid took p8. Max took p3 and reported that his downshifts were bad. Lando took p2, Charles took p4, and Max took p2. Kimi took p4, Franco took p16, and George took p6. Nico, Oliver, Esteban, Carlos, Gabriel, and Franco were all out in the second session.
Max took pole with nine minutes left in the third session. Charles took p2 and Arvid, Liam, and Lando all took p3 in rapid succession. Oscar took p4, Pierre took p6, and Lewis took p2. George took p5 and Kimi took p3, and Lando and Oscar took p5 and p7. Lewis took p2 and then Charles took p2. Kimi took p4 and Pierre took p8. Max couldn’t improve on his initial lap, so he took pole with that lap, making it his fiftieth pole position in his career.
Race – Sunday, October 11
Lance, Fernando, and Isack all started from the pitlane. George started from the back of the grid. Max retained the lead of the race, which continued the streak of pole-sitters never losing the lead at Singapore in dry conditions. Liam was up one place, Nico was up 2, and Carlos had made his way into the top ten. Oliver and Esteban had a very entertaining battle for eleventh position, and George had made his way up to p16 and then p15. Oliver had successfully beaten his teammate to p11 and he’d made it up to p10 as well. George was up to p14. Gabriel was out with a gearbox issue, which brought out the virtual safety car. Isack had made his way up to p17, and George was up to p12. Isack made his way up to p15, and Lewis was losing time. He pit for new tires and came out in seventh place. Lando reported that Kimi had violated track limits in turn one. Lewis had made his way up to p6 and George had made his way up to p11. Kimi pit and came out in p6, and Charles pit and came out in p4. Lando and Oscar were up to p2 and p3. Max had a 16.7 second lead on Lando.
George was up to p10. Franco was off track and trying to come back on, but he eventually made his way fully off track. Nico was up to p10. George was in p9. Kimi reported something leaking in his car, but Mercedes opted to do nothing, so it probably wasn’t important anyway. Max pit and came out still in first, probably thanks to the lead he had on Lando. Oscar was in p2 and Charles was in p3. Oscar pit and came out in p6, and George had made his way up to p7. Isack had made his way up to p14. Kimi got a final warning for track limits and his lap time was deleted. Lance also got a final warning for track limits, which ended up meaning nothing because he had a clutch issue and retired the car. That brought out the virtual safety car. Apparently Lance has caused the most safety cars this season. It’s not surprising. George was still in p7.
Charles pit and came out in p3, Kimi pit and came out in p5, and George pit right as the virtual safety car was ending and therefore got a mostly normal speed pitstop. He came out in p10. Kimi had no brakes, Oscar pit due to a puncture in his tire, and Lewis was also having brake issues. Charles was up to p2, and Isack was up to p12. George was up to p9. Kimi got another track limits warning, but despite the fact that he had four warnings (the amount needed in order to get a penalty), he didn’t get a penalty. One of his track limits violations was due to his brakes failing, so they didn’t count it. Kimi was in p3, and Lando was in p4 potentially having a sensor issue. Isack was in p10.
Oscar and Lewis were once again fighting for p5 during a grand prix. Oscar won. Max won the Singapore Grand Prix for the first time in his career and surpassed Michael Schumacher’s record of most wins with Ferrari (72). Max now has the second most wins with a single team in history at 73; Lewis has the most with 84 at Mercedes. Charles finished p2 and Kimi finished p3.
There’s no race next week, but there is one the week after that in Austin. I have no idea what’s going to happen. Probably a Mercedes pole and win and I really hope it’s George. Maybe McLaren or Ferrari will miraculously be good again. We’ll see.
