Image by Glenn Dunbar/LAT
Vettel ends drought in Ferrari Singapore 1-2
Sebastian Vettel won his first race in more than a year by accidentally undercutting polesitter Charles Leclerc for the lead at the Singapore Grand Prix.
Vettel started third behind teammate Leclerc and second-placed Lewis Hamilton, but the race swung towards him at the first pit stop window, when the race’s slow pace forced him into an early tire change that incidentally worked to move him into the lead.
It all looked good for Leclerc early on, while Hamilton's race also was undercut. Image by Steven Tee/LAT
Leclerc had aced his start to keep Hamilton at arm’s length, but further down the grid Carlos Sainz and Nico Hulkenberg were tangling for a points finish, making contact at the first lap as the latter attempted to pass around the outside of the latter. Both were forced back to the pits for repairs and an early tire change, dropping to the back.
But with the leaders running at a restrained pace to ensure a single stop at the hard-to-pass circuit, the field remained stubbornly bunched, allowing Hulkenberg to rebuild his race, making his way back to 14th place by Lap 18. What’s more, his pace on fresh rubber was quick enough to move up into the pit stop window of the front-runners.
Ferrari, noting the threat of making a pit stop and falling behind Hulkenberg, called in Vettel on Lap 19, with Max Verstappen following suit, both for new hard tires.
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But it wasn’t until the following tour that Leclerc came in for his own precautionary change, and it proved critical to his result: When he emerged from pit lane he fell behind Vettel, who had used his fresher tires to undercut him and inherit the net lead of the grand prix.
Hamilton remained up front and attempted to unleash what pace remained in his aging rubber, but the Mercedes had little more to give. Indeed so ordinary was the Briton’s pace that it became immediately clear he would not only lose places to the second Ferrari and Verstappen, but he risked falling behind teammate Valtteri Bottas, who had made his own stop shortly after Leclerc. The team intervened, asking the Finn to slow and allowing Hamilton to exit pit lane at the start of Lap 27 ahead of the sister car.
Only a gaggle of midfield cars -- a side effect of the front-runners’ early stops -- remained to be passed, and Vettel, his confidence boosted, was bold in his offense. First passing Lance Stroll and Daniel Ricciardo, he then launched an ambitious attack down Pierre Gasly’s inside at Turn 7. The pair made contact and Gasly was forced off the track, though both emerged unscathed and the stewards deemed it a racing incident.
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The way appeared clear for Vettel claim victory, but the Singapore Grand Prix, notorious for its 100 percent safety car record, had three caution periods in store to test his mettle.
The first came on lap 36 to clean up George Russell’s stricken Williams. The Briton lost control when hit by Haas’s Romain Grosjean, who nudged his rear wheels in a botched attempt at a pass around the outside of turn eight.
“I shouldn’t be surprised,” Russell noted wryly over team radio, and the stewards summoned both to a hearing after the race.
Vettel nailed the Lap 41 restart to keep clear of his teammate, but the race was neutralized again on Lap 44 when Sergio Perez was forced to stop his car on track with a technical problem.
This time Leclerc was determined to leave nothing to chance, and he demanded “everything, even engine modes” from his team in an attempt to right the perceived wrong. But his team was unaccommodating.
“Charles, we need to bring the car home,” his engineer radioed back. “We need to manage the power unit and bring the car home.”
Leclerc protested: “I won’t do anything stupid, it’s not my goal.
“I want to finish one-two, I just think it’s not fair.”
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But the Lap 48 restart too came and went without incident, and by the time Daniil Kvyat and Kimi Raikkonen made contact at the first turn on Lap 50, triggering another safety car clean up the Finn’s broken Alfa Romeo, Leclerc understood the reality of his situation and restrained himself from challenging again.
Vettel was free to cruise to the finish and claim his first victory since last year’s Belgian Grand Prix.
The long wait made his 53rd GP win especially sweet for Vettel. Image by Sam Bloxham/LAT
“I’m very happy,” Vettel said relievedly. “First of all a big congratulations to the team. The start of the season’s been difficult for us, but recent weeks we started to come alive. I’m really proud of everyone’s work.”
Leclerc was visibly unhappy to see his fifth pole position turn into just a second-place finish, but the Monegasque was magnanimous with his words in defeat.
“Obviously it’s always difficult to lose a win like that, but at the end it’s a one-two for the team, so I’m happy for that," he said. “This was the strategy. The strategy was fixed at the beginning of the race. I stuck to the plan. In the end what’s important is we finished one-two. It’s the first one-two for the season and all the guys deserved it.”
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Verstappen finished third, up from fourth on the grid, to beat both Mercedes drivers in a positive result for the team after a disappointing qualifying.
“I think the whole race went well,” he said. “I started to struggle a bit with the tires, so we boxed, and actually that was quite a good call because we undercut Lewis [Hamilton].
“In general I’m happy to be on the podium. It’s always difficult to overtake here, so to do it by strategy is very positive.”
Hamilton led Bottas home in fourth and fifth ahead of Alex Albon in the sister Red Bull Racing in sixth.
Lando Norris finished a strong seventh by keeping himself out of the melee between his teammate and Nico Hulkenberg, allowing him to cruise unchallenged to the flag ahead of Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly.
Nico Hulkenberg drove a strong recovery race after his first-lap crash to finish ninth with two points for Renault, while Antonio Giovinazzi ended the day 10th.
Presented by:
Michael Lamonato
Having first joined the F1 press corps in 2012 by what he assumed was administrative error, Michael has since made himself one of the few Australian regulars in the press room. Graduating in print journalism and later radio, he worked his way from community media to Australia's ABC Grandstand as an F1 broadcaster, and his voice is now heard on the official Australian Grand Prix podcast, the F1 Strategy Report and Box of Neutrals. Though he'd prefer to be recognized for his F1 expertise, in parts of hometown Melbourne his reputation for once being sick in a kart will forever precede him.
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