Sergio Pérez wins ‘eventful’ Singapore GP

Sergio Pérez came out victorious at the recently-held Singapore Grand Prix (GP) with the Mexican driver giving the Red Bull Racing Formula 1 (F1) team another win at the Marina Bay Street Circuit since Sebastian Vettel in 2013.

Checo was also praised for showcasing the best performance of his F1 career to date after he controlled an intense and eventful race.

“It was certainly my best performance. I controlled the race, although the (tire) warm-up was pretty difficult. The last few laps were so intense. I really didn’t feel it so much in the car, but when I got out of it, I felt it. I pushed (and) I gave everything for the win today,” said Pérez.

Despite torrential rain delaying the Singapore GP for over an hour, Pérez immediately seized the lead as soon as the lights went out. He then zoomed past polesitter Charles Leclerc in the first corner giving Pérez a dominating start. Conversely, Red Bull Racing frontman Max Verstappen bogged down at the start and dropped to 12th place.

The Safety Car then made its first appearance of the evening, when Williams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi and Alfa Romeo F1 Team Orlen’s Zhou Guanyu tangled in the first sector, and with the Chinese driver’s car stuck just off the track in Turn 5, the race was quickly neutralized.

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

The Dutchman’s next target was Alpine F1 Team’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 an engine failure and steered his car up an escape road. Verstappen swept past to take sixth place.

A Virtual Safety Car (VSC) was then deployed when Alex Albon crashed and a power unit failure sidelines Esteban Ocon in the second Alpine, seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton then hit the barriers at Turn 7. The British driver — thanks to his solid front wing — was able to carry on but fell back between McLaren Racing’s fourth-placed Lando Norris and Verstappen who was sitting in sixth.

Leclerc was then asked to box and was given medium tires. Pérez followed and gave up his lead, also taking medium tires. Likewise, Scuderia Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen also pitted to take on 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.

The stewards then noted that Pérez dropped too far off the course car as he led ahead of Leclerc, Sainz, and Norris. After the race, the Mexican driver was reprimanded and handed a five-second penalty for falling more than 10 car lengths behind the Safety Car.

Per the stewards, they “do not accept that the conditions were such as to make it impossible or dangerous for PER (Pérez) 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 (Pérez) as mitigatory circumstances for this incident.”

In the second decision, the stewards said that the Red Bull Racing Formula 1 driver had ignored a warning from the race direction to close the gap and as such was handed the five-second penalty.

The Safety Car left the track at the end of lap 38 and once again Pérez 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 eighth place, and after pitting to shed flat-spotted tires for new soft tires, he rejoined in 14th place.

Pérez then had Leclerc on his tail and the Mexican soon complained on the radio that he was suffering with driveability both under braking and out of corners. But despite the setback, Pérez doggedly held off the Ferrari driver until he broke DRS. He continued to pull away at the front and as the two-hour mark was reached, Pérez completed the final lap.

“Yeah, I'm super happy. This win is really special for me, because I've had a bit of a rough patch in the last few races. And I mean, obviously, the media in Formula 1 makes it extremely, a lot bigger, maybe because I'm just Mexican and if I'm not two races in a row in the podium, then I'm having a worst season ever and Red Bull should drop me and all that sort of stuff that you get to see. And yeah, it’s just nice to get that win and yeah, it’s not a reminder to anyone of how good I am. But it's just always good to be able to put together this sort of performances. And yeah, just keep going, you know, we kept working really hard,” Pérez said in the Singapore GP post-race press conference.

Sergio Pérez also won “Driver of the Day” after the Singapore GP.

Photos from Formula 1 and Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA)

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