Il Singapore Grand Prix it represented the first and only real opportunity for the teams who had never been able to aspire to victory throughout the entire season. With the Red Bulls of Verstappen and Perez far from the objective, after the exclusion in Q2 of qualifying a window of opportunity opened for teams like Ferrari - first and third with Sainz and Leclerc Mercedes and McLaren. So let's see what happened in the most fascinating night-time Grand Prix of the calendar and which brought joy and sorrow to Fanta F1, with the tops and flops of the weekend.
TOP
Carlos Sainz: Speed, concentration, coldness. For the first time in the season the victory it wasn't a Red Bull affair and Carlos Sainz took this opportunity after a perfect weekend. Throughout the race he managed the tires and his strategy, even taking risks at the end to give the DRS to Norris to keep Russell, with the fresher medium tyre, away. Pole, victory, driver of the day. He has almost all the bonuses at Fanta F1. His victory, the second of his career, has a special flavor because it came with the head and the body. It comes after Monza, another race where Sainz showed his claws.
Land Norris: Together with his ex-partner he celebrates on the podium. Excellent weekend for Norris who was able to manage the race until the end with calm and perseverance. Starting fourth, he manages to gain two important positions. Good work also by the team who didn't get lost in the confusion of strategies between Safety and Virtual. They tried and succeeded.
Liam Lawson: In the second race of his career Lawson scores points. He does it in Singapore, in one of the most trying and complicated races for the drivers and after having knocked Max Verstappen out of Q3. His future in F1 has just begun, and could continue into 2024, considering that the team has yet to choose its pairing for 2024.
FLOPS
Yuki Tsunoda: Yet another difficult weekend for Tsunoda forced to retire after not even one lap. TO Monza an engine failure on the formation lap, yesterday Verstappen's impediment relegated him to the last positions and today a contact with a Red Bull, that of Perez, excluded him from the race. His teammate, Lawson despite being a rookie at the second F1 race of his career, he is achieving more than the Japanese who now risks not having a contract in 2024.
Max Verstappen: No one would have ever predicted it, but in Singapore Red Bull encountered more than one difficulty, missing out on victory and the podium, and risking finishing out of the points with both drivers. Since the start of the season, Max Verstappen has never had any problems with the RB19, or at least not significant ones. Riders have already been complaining about the balance since Friday. The changes made did not bring much improvement. Max was forced to give up the weekend after reaching a new record, that of consecutive victories.
Stephen Ocon: Esteban is truly constant... in training camps. The Frenchman, even on his birthday, was forced to retire after a fantastic race until the 42nd lap. The Alpine has a serious problem with reliability. And bad luck always strikes Esteban Ocon. Karma! His former teammate Fernando Alonso would say, who had been overtaken by Ocon before the Frenchman's retirement.
George Russell: A race, an impeccable weekend until the last two corners of the Grand Prix, where Russell threw the podium to the wind and ended up hitting the wall. Too high a risk, with the rush of wanting to catch Norris in second place and the pressure of Lewis Hamilton on his heels.
