Its over. Red Bull Racing's winning streak which started at the 2022 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and extended till the 2023 Italian Grand Prix has been broken , a streak which lasted 15 races , and which team other than the famous Scuderia Ferrari to break it, the same team which denied Mclaren Honda a perfect season in 1988 and it is Carlos Sainz who has broken the streak.
RedBull never really had the pace at Marina Bay and after being knocked out in Q2, it was always gonna be an uphill struggle to get anywhere near the podium. A ill timed Safety Car caused by Logan Sargaent going off meant the front runners could pit losing just half the time they would if they made a pitstop under racing conditions. Once they pitted onto the mediums on lap 39 and lap 40 respectively for both drivers, Esteban Ocon's Alpine came to a halt on lap 43 which cost RedBull as both Mercedes made pitstops under the Ocon caused Virtual Safety Car. Max made up more than 4o seconds to finish P5, less than 4 tenths behind Leclerc and Perez finished P8 after a really anonymous drive.
On Saturday Sainz put in a perfect lap to get pole position , with Russell accompanying him on the front row , Leclerc 3rd and Lando 4th both unhappy with their grid position and Hamilton only 5th. The start of the race proved to be crucial with Sainz holding onto pole but Leclerc starting on Softs got ahead of Russell on the medium compound tyre and Hamilton got level with Lando going into T1 but went across the runoff area meaning he had to give up his gained positions. Leclerc became a rear gunner for Sainz protecting him from Russell behind although Sainz kept the relative pace of the race slow
Then on lap 20 Sargeant in the Williams went into the barrier at T8 damaging his wing and spewing debris all over the track. This brought out the safety car and everyone in the top 10 pitted except the two RedBulls, which meant at the restart they got passed by the likes of Russell , Norris and Hamilton on fresher tires. Leclerc was the biggest loser in the pitstop phase as he could not be released as Mercedes were double stacking their cars and at the restart Hamilton passed demoting Leclerc to 5th place in the Grand Prix. Lando Norris meanwhile so far had driven a assured race and was upto P3. The race then got a bit processional with Russell and Norris not providing any threat while the Bulls pitted on lap 40.
Then the race turned on its head. Esteban Ocon in the Alpine who was running a comfortable P6 got a Renault engine failure and he was out which triggered a Virtual Safety Car. Mercedes took the gamble and pitted both their cars only losing about 14s seconds under a VSC. This promoted Leclerc to P3 and Lando to P2. Normal racing resumed at lap 47 and the Mercedes duo began their hunt of Leclerc in the Ferrari. They got close on lap 53 and Russell got the overtake done and Hamilton followed through going into Turn 7. They both closed in on Norris but Sainz showed why everyone calls him a smooth operator by slowing down to let Norris get DRS. This ensured Russell couldn"t pass the Mclaren and he came under pressure from Hamilton in the end.
On the final lap , Russell clipped the wall going into Turn 10 and slammed into the wall and went out of the race, handing Hamilton the final podium place and promoting everyone else up a place. Sainz had led every lap to win the 2023 Singapore 2023 Grand Prix and break Ferrari's draught of a race win since his win at Silverstone in 2022. Max Verstappen finished P5 and extended his championship lead to 151 points. AlphaTauri got their best finish of the season with Liam Lawson finishing P9 in just his 3rd race ever. Kevin Magnussen got a P10 for Haas, their first points since the Austria Sprint.
The Singapore grand prix was quite a thrilling race with drama and tension built up. Next week at the magnificent Suzuka circuit in Japan and normal service should return with Singapore expected to be an outlier for RedBull.
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