Singapore Grand Prix Race Report: Checo wins despite penalty
Singapore Grand Prix Race Report: Checo wins despite penalty
Sergio Perez defeated Charles Leclerc in the action-packed 2022 Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix.
After overtaking polesitter Charles Leclerc into the first corner, the Mexican driver took command of the race from the front. Still, a post-race stewards investigation forced him to second-guess his victory for failing to stay inside 10 car lengths of the safety car.
Perez received a warning for the first incident on lap 10 and a five-second penalty for the second incident on lap 36. Still, he managed to hold on to the win and cross the finish line ahead of the Ferrari driver by 7.6 seconds.
Sainz finished third for Ferrari after overtaking Hamilton from the start. Norris and Ricciardo benefited from their delayed Safety Car stops and placed fourth and fifth, respectively.
In a significant victory for Aston Martin, Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel profited from mistakes made by Verstappen and Hamilton to place sixth and eighth, respectively.
In an effort to catch Vettel in the closing two minutes of the race, Hamilton, who had earlier crashed straight into the barriers on lap 33, locked up and slid to ninth place. Verstappen was ranked eighth, even though he severely locked up during the last Safety Car restart. On the last lap of the race, the Red Bull driver passed Vettel to take P7 from him.
Valtteri Bottas, who finished 11th after taking softs for the final Safety Car restart, could not claim the last point. Pierre Gasly completed the top 10 for AlphaTauri behind Hamilton.
Kevin Magnussen, who was forced to stop with damage after colliding with Verstappen on Lap 1, finished 12th. In contrast, his teammate Mick Schumacher, who had a puncture while defending Russell, finished 13th.
Russell started in the pit lane and had four pit stops. The Briton finished the race with the fastest lap and finished 14th overall for Mercedes.
Six drivers dropped out of the race. Zhou and Latifi collided early on, while Alonso retired on lap 20 due to an engine problem.
Before Esteban Ocon’s engine failed to cause a double retirement for Alpine and Tsunoda’s collision to bring out the last Safety Car, Albon crashed and withdrew in the pits on lap 26.
