What a surprising outcome from last weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix! After the domination of Ferrari from the last two races, it was widely thought that Red Bull and Mercedes would be the key competitors over the weekend. However, 392 days after his last win, Sebastian Vettel finally won a Formula 1 Grand Prix in a rather unexpected manner.
Here are all the talking points from the Singapore Grand Prix:
The minor lap 1 incidents:
There’s always a safety car in Singapore, and this season it was no exception. However, it did not make an appearance on the opening lap, but that does not mean there weren’t any incidents. Firstly, George Russell had a tangle with his teammate, Robert Kubica as well as Daniel Ricciardo, who had to make his way through the field after disqualification from qualifying. Russell ended up losing his front wing when he was squeezed by the two cars.
Former teammates Nico Hulkenberg and Carlos Sainz also had a coming together on the first lap, resulting in punctures for the pair. Sainz came off worse, as during the pitstop McLaren struggled to lift the car up with the rear jack. It is the third race in a row where Sainz has had issues – first struggling to get off the line in Belgium, then a botched pitstop at Monza, and then a race-ruining puncture at the beginning of the race.
The power of the undercut:
In recent years, we have seen many race-winning strategies, but this call from Ferrari was top class if you’re Sebastian Vettel. The initial plan from the strategists was to pit Vettel to get him ahead of Lewis Hamilton and get a 1-2 finish, but it obviously turned out better than this, much to the dismay of Charles Leclerc. It was completely understandable as to why Ferrari blinked first with Sebastian: someone had to pit first and the field was not spreading as far apart as the teams would’ve liked; also it would have been worse jeopardising the race lead with Leclerc’s car than it would’ve with Seb, who was running in third place.
It is also worth noting that Red Bull too capitalised on the opportunity of an undercut, as Max Verstappen managed to get past Hamilton with this strategy, as was brought closer to Leclerc’s Ferrari as the race progressed. It’s like a complete reverse from the strategy calls earlier in the season, where Mercedes rarely missed a trick – but in the last 2 races they have been caught napping by Ferrari, and have been surpassed on pure pace too.
The Safety Cars:
As previously mentioned, it would not be a Singapore Grand Prix without a safety car. This year, it was called on three times. The first case was when there was a crash between Romain Grosjean and George Russell. It was ruled as a racing incideny by the stewards, as Grosjean didn’t really have anywhere to go after entering ffrom the outside of the corner, whilst Russell wouldn’t have known much about the Haas being there.
The second call was the end of a nightmare few laps for Racing Point. Sergio Perez’s car had an oil leak, and he was told by his race engineer that he had to stop the car on track. It was rather unfortunate for the team, who had to deal with a Lance Stroll puncture a few laps earlier, but they could not do anything with the mechanical failure on Perez’s car.
The final safety car was called on after the ‘Torpedo’ returned. Daniil Kvyat crashed into the side of Kimi Raikkonen’s Alfa Romeo, damaging the suspension and subsequently ending Kimi’s race. Once again the stewards ruled no action was necessary as they seemed to agree with Kvyat’s claim that he was turned in on by Raikkonen.
Is Sebastian Vettel finally back?
Over the past year, Sebastian Vettel has not raced like the four time world champion we all know he is – whether its down to lack of confidence, mistakes or whatever else there could be. However, this weekend’s win against the run of form must surely instill some confidence from him, and as a fan of the sport, I think its important that Sebastian got this win at the weekend, regardless of the manner in which it came, and I hope we can see an actual fight to the end of the season between Ferrari and Mercedes, as we have seen in the previous 2 races beforehand.
These are my key moments from the Singapore Grand Prix. What are yours? Do you think that Vettel will come back on the right track?
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