Sergio Perez chased his Red Bull as the leader across the floodlit track in Singapore. Two times hammered in his mind. Perez knew there were still five minutes to go, the Grand Prix would not end on its natural number of laps, but would break the time limit. And he was 3.5 seconds ahead of his pursuer Charles Leclerc. Most likely, this distance would not be enough. Because while Perez was racing, the commissioners were already brooding over a possible punishment for the Mexican. In a race marked by accidents, he had allowed the prescribed distance to the safety car rolling in front of him to be too large – a maximum of ten car lengths are permitted. His race engineer had told him the penalty he was about to face on the radio: five seconds.
Perez stepped on the gas as if the friendly Monegasque was not behind him, but the devil incarnate – and thus stretched his buffer to 7.6 seconds ahead of Leclerc in the Ferrari and his third-placed teammate Carlos Sainz. Eureka! Not even the commissioners could rob him of the fourth win of his career. That’s what they thought at Red Bull. “Vamos, Checo!” called the team boss Christian Horner in a touch of happiness in the radio. And Perez climbed to the top step of the dais, spritzed with champagne and stretched his arms toward the fireworks-illuminated sky.
Little did he know that he would then have to report to the stewards at 11:55 p.m. local time.
In Formula 1, why can’t TV images be evaluated while the sport is being played?
Five minutes before the witching hour in Singapore, the commissioners asked questions. Meanwhile, Mattia Binotto, the Ferrari team boss, was investigative in TV interviews: Perez didn’t have the maximum distance to the safety car right away two traffic-calmed phases exceeded? Twice five seconds is ten seconds. Ten seconds penalty minus 7.6 seconds lead makes 2.4 seconds behind. So shouldn’t Charles Leclerc be declared the winner of Singapore more than an hour after the end of the race?
Oh, said Perez, when he finally appeared full of confidence at the press conference, which was delayed because of his hearing. The verdict had not yet been pronounced. He only had a “miscommunication with Bernd”. In some passages he was “so fast” in his safety car.
Only two and a half hours after the end of the race did the stewards explain why Perez was allowed to keep the win: In fact, he had violated the regulations twice. For the first offence, however, he only received a warning because the conditions on the wet track were very difficult.
A farce? But yes! The premature award ceremony, the late verdict, the inability of the race supervisor to come to a result in a timely manner. In Formula 1, why can’t TV images be evaluated while the sport is being played? The driver did not need to be heard to realize that the track was wet.
Perez has now saved a few points in what has been a very strange weekend for Red Bull. Not that it’s likely that team-mate Max Verstappen will need this in the final tally. But the Dutchman finished just seventh in Singapore two days after his 25th birthday, squandering his first chance at an early title defense. After 17 of 22 races with 341 points, he is still comfortably ahead of Leclerc (237 points) in the overall standings. Next Sunday in Suzuka he will most likely smash his way to his second title.
Marshals use brooms and mops to wipe the standing water off the piste
The racing cars had rolled into the floodlights 65 minutes late, a monsoon-like rain had delayed the start. After a short boat tour with his safety car, Bernd Mayländer came to the conclusion that a punctual start was out of the question. At 8 p.m. local time, marshals were still wiping the standing water off the runway with brooms and mops. And when it started, the race still deserved one of those yellow warning signs that said “Slippery when wet”. The drivers rolled carefully into the first lap on mixed tires for changeable conditions.
When pole setter Leclerc, Perez and Lewis Hamilton reached the first corner, the former had already swapped positions after a lightning start from the Mexican – and the Briton had lost his place to Sainz. Perez immediately led the race – and Verstappen? Lost his eighth place before the first bend and was temporarily classified as twelfth. eighth place? Indeed.
Qualifying had delivered one of the finer punchlines in this one-sided 2022 title fight. Instead of checkmating Scuderia Ferrari, which was stumbling from blunder to blunder this year, in Singapore, Red Bull Racing stepped into one themselves this time – with a running start. Rolling on course for the best time, Verstappen was called into the pits at his fastest turn. They hadn’t let enough fuel flow into the tank for the final rush; instead of a possible pole position, the Dutchman had to start from parking bay number eight, which was rather unpopular with title candidates, into the floodlights of Singapore. “I don’t get it, what the fuck is this about?” Verstappen cursed into his radio, that was the spontaneous and emotional summary of his analysis submitted later: “That’s unacceptable. You fill the car for five laps and want six laps drive, the logic doesn’t fit.”
Fernando Alonso drives his incredible 350th race
Four laps were contested in the race, when the Dutchman had already fought his way back to ninth place, but he was already 21 seconds behind leader Perez – and because he was behind a certain Sebastian Vettel in heavy traffic, the gap continued to grow. Just like that of fourth-placed Hamilton on the cars in front of him. “I warned you about the tires, you’d better listen to me in the future. No grip!” Hamilton mocked on the radio towards his team, obviously he had advocated putting on rain tires.
They might have also helped to prevent contact between Zhou Guanyu and Nicholas Latifi, the Canadian first pushed the Chinese, then himself into the gang, the race was over for both of them – the safety car was deployed. None of the pursuers was able to use the restart to overtake, but shortly afterwards Verstappen finally made it past Vettel. After eleven laps he was back on his grid position, but when he got there he immediately passed Pierre Gasly – and was now stuck behind Fernando Alonso. The 41-year-old Spaniard experienced his fabulous 350th race on Sunday, leaving Kimi Raikkonen behind in the statistics and thus receiving the inauguration as the official Methuselah of Formula 1. To celebrate the day, Alonso allowed himself a little fun, the presumed future world champion to stare at his spray-spraying bottom a few laps longer than necessary. And who knows how long Verstappen would have stared if the engine hadn’t suddenly stopped at Alonso’s Alpine. Because it was now somewhat in the way, the Virtual Safety Car (VSC) was activated.
In this phase, the race was particularly exciting because of the question of when the first driver would dare to try dry tyres. Lo and behold: George Russell, as a pioneer, had medium rubber screwed onto his Silver Arrow. Because he was rolling at the end of the field anyway, it was an understandable decision. Although a premature one, which he proved with snaking, wavy lines and poor lap times. Next up was Alex Albon slamming into the barriers and when the VSC came back on, thanks to Russell’s experience, no one asked for slicks anymore. Not even when shortly afterwards the next Alpine, that of Esteban Ocon, rolled out with an engine failure and the VSC flashed for the third time.
Mick Schumacher misses the points
At the front, Perez and Leclerc did their laps alone, while third-placed Sainz was unable to keep up their speeds. In return, his pursuer Hamilton did him the favor of missing the braking point and drilling the front wing into the barriers. Hamilton was able to continue and, ironically, briefly placed himself in front of Verstappen, his World Cup rival from last year, whom he now of course also slowed down by crawling his demolished Mercedes. “His front wing will fall off soon!” Verstappen shouted anxiously into the microphone. But he didn’t fall. Hamilton headed for the supply lane in good time for repairs, just like all the drivers who were still driving on mixed tires and now – halfway through the race – finally asked for tires for dry conditions. Also Yuki Tsunoda, who very soon pushed his Alpha Romeo off the asphalt on the fresh rubber.
The next safety car … for a change the real one, in which Bernd Mayländer has been sitting for ages. For the second time, Perez let the 51-year-old traffic warden from Waiblingen rush too far.
The final order before the Mexican tried to increase the distance to his pursuer for fear of a penalty was now: Perez, Leclerc, Sainz, Norris and Verstappen. The temporary fifth place let Verstappen’s emotions boil over. When trying to slow down Norris, he ruined the tires – had to pit again and sorted himself back in at the end of the field. However, only temporarily, because Russell and Mick Schumacher did him the favor of also suffering flat feet in a collision.
“Schumacher defends like it’s the race of his life!” Russel shouted into the microphone indignantly. But maybe that was it. Unlike the young Brit, Schumacher still has no cockpit for the coming season. On Sunday he would probably have finished in the points – that’s how he finished 13th.