Verstappen ruins the first 'match ball' for his second crown

Max Verstappen's coronation as two-time world champion will have to wait, at least in Japan next week.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
02 October 2022 Sunday 11:35
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Verstappen ruins the first 'match ball' for his second crown

Max Verstappen's coronation as two-time world champion will have to wait, at least in Japan next week. In his first match ball for the title, the Red Bull man made an error due to excessive momentum that left him 7th. The victory in Singapore went to Checo Pérez, superb, and Carlos Sainz got on the podium, third, behind Charles Leclerc.

With a delay of one hour and five minutes due to persistent rain on the Marina Bay circuit, the Singapore GP race started, the 17th of the season. It stopped raining and the puddled track dried up, although all the cars came out with wet tires, most of them intermediate.

When the five traffic lights went out, Leclerc, stuck in the acceleration, lost the first position to Checo Pérez, Sainz was third by overtaking Hamilton, and Alonso was 6th, overtaken by Norris, while Verstappen, from 8th in grid fell back to 13th avoiding the tumult of the middle of the pack. The one who advanced the most squares was Vettel, from 13th to 8th.

The champion soon went into comeback mode as if it were a video game. He easily overtook Magnussen, Stroll and Tsunoda in three laps and was down to 9th, 20s off the lead (v. 4/61).

At the front, Checo Pérez kept the lead with a solid lead of 1.5s over Leclerc and 6.4 over Sainz, who kept the podium position keeping Hamilton at bay, 3s behind. Alonso circulated in the same sixth position, between Norris and Gasly.

The first safety-car, lap 8/61, due to the touch of Zhou and Latifi that left pieces on the track, regrouped the peloton and dissipated the time gaps. The biggest beneficiary was Verstappen, who could get closer to the leading group and would not have to cut as much ground. When the safety car was withdrawn, the Dutchman continued his comeback: he ate Vettel and Gasly and was already seventh, behind Alonso (v. 12/61).

The Asturian was a bone for Red Bull, he kept him behind without Verstappen being able to put a wheel on him even once. To the trade of his hands, Alonso added the help of the increasingly dry track, which made the intermediate tires wear out more and more, they began to be left over and to ask for a change for the smooth ones.

When he had 9 laps with the Dutchman behind, his Alpine said enough, breaking the engine. Alonso's withdrawal the day he was contesting his 350th Grand Prix, a new record for longevity in F1, beating Kimi Räikkönen (349). The Asturian's abandonment in an escape route led to a virtual safety-car that Russell took advantage of to be the first to mount slicks. The brave Englishman risked it, with the asphalt still wet and slippery, in being the first to put on smooth tires.

The race reached its halfway point, the cars with the initial intermediate tires held out, and Sainz was one of those who lost the most pace along the way, 16 seconds away from his teammate Leclerc, and squeezed by Hamilton, 4-7 tenths (v 30/61). The Englishman intimidated the Madrid native, insinuating that he would launch the attack on him, just like Verstappen on Norris, whom he was crushing for fifth place.

Unexpectedly, the Spaniard from Ferrari breathed when Hamilton left the track, hitting the wall and damaging the front wing. The Englishman lost one position, 5th, ahead of Verstappen (v. 33/61). At that moment the pit-stops began to arrive to put on the smooth tires. The first was Leclerc, then Hamilton, with mediums, Bottas dared with the soft… One lap later, the leader Pérez, Sainz and Verstappen did it. And right after Tsunoda's accident at turn 10 prompted the appearance of the second safety car. He missed them. The winners were Norris and Ricciardo, who took a free stop and placed 4th and 6th.

The last 24 laps would be played on slick tires, with 14 surviving cars on track. Pérez led, followed by Leclerc, with Sainz on the provisional podium, Norris fourth, Verstappen fifth, Ricciardo sixth on soft, Stroll, Vettel and Hamilton ninth. Possibilities reopened.

The 24 laps became a 36-minute countdown (since not all laps would be completed after two hours). The race was relaunched with Pérez keeping his head against Leclerc. Vertappen over-braked trying to overtake Norris, locked tires and went into the run-off, losing three positions. Error made by the champion, who fell to 8th place, had to put on new, soft tyres, and rejoined in last position, 14th.

The race revived for a few moments thanks to Pérez and Leclerc in the last 26 minutes. The Monegasque went into attack mode and began to press hard on the Mexican, who formidably closed all the gaps, defended his first position and also moved away from the Ferrari, who threw in the towel.

Checo, however, was being investigated for a violation of the procedure behind the safety-car. “Why?!” exclaimed the Red Bull man upon being warned by the team about him in the last 10 minutes, with the threat of a 5-second penalty.

He had to open more space on Leclerc, from whom he distanced himself by 3s with 8 minutes to go. It was a race against the clock within the race. When the clock was set to zero, he took 7s5 out of it. He had saved the mattress with some heart-stopping qualy laps. Deserved second victory of the year, fourth of his career. "This is how we Mexicans do it, we keep our mouths shut and we do it," he said over the radio to his team when they congratulated him.