“Formula 1 At It’s Finest” In Marina Bay | 2023 Singapore Grand Prix
A Full Jam Pack Grand Prix of the 2023 F1 Season
Carlos Sainz was leading the F1 Singapore Grand Prix 2023, followed by Lando Norris behind him, there were two Mercedes on a mission to take P1 and P2 but in the last lap, a tragedy happened with George Russell that changed the entire race for Mercedes and the expectations of Mercedes fans…
Hello and welcome back to my new story in which we will discuss the fantastic strategy by Carlos Sainz, the humble ending of Max Verstappen & Redbull’s winning streak, and supercharge run for the podium by Mercedes, and much more that happened in the Maina Bay 2023 in details…😉👍
Qualification Rounds
Before getting into the race let’s take a quick on the qualification rounds
Qualification Round - 1 (Q1)
Q1 started normally but ended in a tragic incident involving Lance Stroll hitting the barriers in the penultimate corner of the track that forced him to retire from the race because his car was completely destroyed and along with him he also, disqualified other drivers like (Bottas, Piastri, Sergeant, and Zhou), who were on their Flying laps.
However, the interesting thing in Q1 was that the midfielders came on top like Haas, Alpha Tauri that put Mercedes, Alpines, McLarens, and Red Bulls in danger
Due to this Lewis Hamilton consistently asked his engineer;
“Are We Safe, Are We Safe”
When Stroll hit the barriers & the Red Flag fell. However, Lewis Hamilton made it out of Q1 on P14 following Albon on P15.
Also, it is the first time in 2023 that both Haas took the provisional pole in Q1 followed by Yuki Tsnuda’s Alpha Tauri who took the pole position from both Haas’s in the final moments of Q1. Which made things spicy for the rest of the qualification sessions.
Qualification Round - 2 (Q2)
Q1 was just the start, Q2 was the main treat.
Sergio Perez spun in turn 3 at his flying lap and Max Verstappen’s Red Bull also twisted a little bit at turn 3, which made really hard for both Red Bulls to put in a solid lap.
However, somehow Max Verstappen got away with P10 at the end of Q2 but Sergio Perez couldn’t because of his spinning at turn 3 which cost him the disqualification from Q2.
But things get interesting when Max Verstappen crosses the line at P10 and the second Red Bull team Alpha Tauri’s drivers were at the end of their flying lap with Yuki Tsunoda aborting his lap in the last sector, followed by Liam Lawson who decided to put in an exceptional lap and crossed the line with P10, toppled down Max Verstappen to P11, at his rookie debut in Singapore GP which ended one of the Red Bulls record of not disqualifying from Q2 since, “Sochi, 2018”.
However, another interesting thing to see; was the Scarlet Ferrari of Carlos Sainz was quick enough to take pole position from George Russell but his teammate settled for P9, and Both Haas drivers Qualified in Q2 for the first time in the Formula 1 2023 season.
So, with those drivers in the top 10, leaving “Max Verstappen, Pierre Gasly Sergio Perez, Alez Albon & Yuki Tsunoda” in the disqualification zone.
Qualification Round - 3 (Q3)
For the First Time in the 2023 F1 season, we saw a non-Red Bull Q3 session in Singapore GP 2023, where Ferrari, McLaren & Mercedes fought hard for the pole position.
However, in the last few minutes of Q3 Carlo Sainz put in a fantastic lap and secured the provisional pole position followed by Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc, George Russell & Lewis Hamilton.
But no one was able to secure P1, so everybody put an effort for P2 however Carlos Sainz’s teammate Charles Leclerc put in his solid lap and secured provisional P2 whereby Geroge Russell tried to get into pole position but with a mere 7 thousandths (0.007) of a second he settle for P2 demoted Charles from P2 to P3 followed by Lando Norris on P4 and Lewis Hamilton who was able to finish the Q3 at P5 with rest of the grid as follows:
Race Day in Marina Bay
The race was electrifying as Charles Leclerc used his Soft tyers and overtook George Russell and Lewis Hamilton had a lightning start from P5 that got him closer to Geroge at turn 1 and due to no space left by his teammate, he had to go through a run-off area and joined the track at turn 3 by gaining positions from his teammate Geroge at P3 & Lando Norris’s Mclaren at P4, which he eventually returned in order to save himself from a penalty from stewards.
So, as the front row was busy gaining & defending positions, at the end of the grid Yuki Tsunoda had contact with Sergio Perez’s Red Bull which damaged his car and forced him to retire from the race in the middle of his first lap without bringing out any safety car!!😌
Poor Yuki it's his second retirement from the race on the starting laps of the race!!😞… Hope we can see him completing his home racing coming up this weekend in Japan!!✌
However, from there on the race continued as usual. But then...
Here Comes The 1st Safety Car
On lap 19, of the Marina Bay, Logan Sargent wasn't able to turn his car at turn-8 and crashed into the barriers, which damaged his front wing which was lingering around his car and he brought the car back into the pits whilst doing this he spread the bits of carbon fiber around the track that brought out the full safety car for 2 laps.
As soon as the safety car came out the teams in the front like Ferrari, McLaren & Mercedes quickly reacted and changed the tyers to hard compounds.
But as the top 5 — including Carlos Sainz, Charles Leclerc, George Russell, Lando Norris & Lewis Hamilton, put on new Hard tyers and went out on the track with the satisfaction that they utilized safety cars really well.
However, there was another driver who wasn't satisfied because he went out of the pit entry track and got a 5-sec penalty that driver was “Fernando Alonso”
However, as the front runners replenished this safety car, the Red Bull garage went haywire because their strategy to go along with their both cars on hard compounds of tyers went out of the window and while others got out of the pit on fresh new Hard tyres, Red Bulls were on old used degraded hard tyres which made life really difficult for both Red Bull Drivers.
As soon as the safety car ended, everyone around them went alive and lightning fast as they didn’t have anything to hold back and blast past both of the Red Bulls one by one & they weren't able to do anything despite having a dominant car.
So, as the Red Bulls were toppling down and hoping for another safety car that would help them to get back in the top 10, suddenly Alpine’s engine in Ocon’s couldn't keep up with his mission to bring more points on the table and left him stranded on the exit of the pit-lane that brought out a Virtual Safety Car.
Here Comes the Second Safety Car
A few laps ago, before the engine failure of Ocon’s Alpine, George Russell said to his Engineer that;
Tell me what do I need to do to win that Position
and his Engineer replied;
We need to have 2 secs of pace to overtake & defend from Carlos Sainz
So, as Ocon retired and VSC was Deployed on lap 45, Mercedes took the risk and pitted both Mercedes for brand new Mediums which they saved specifically for this kind of occasion.
When they put on those Mediums and as they went out of the pit, they were no more the drivers racing on a track, they became hunters with a mission to hunt down the race leaders in a sleek black car, should we say (Black Arrow).
Also, do you remember Fernando Alonso's 5-sec Penalty, So, when the VSC came out again went to the pits to serve his penalty but as soon as he served his penalty his crew messed up the pitstop costing him a few positions when re-joined the race.
Which annoyed Fernando Alonso till the end of the race and at last the car that was something like this…
However, let's get back to our hunters (Mercedes Drivers), with each lap they covered 2 seconds of the gap which brought them closer to Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari who passed them (Mercedes Drivers) while they were in the pits, however, they both hunted him down and overtook him and began their march for the Carlos Sainz & Lando Norris’s on P1 & P2 respectively.
However, things went interesting when both Mercedes drivers got closer to the leaders and Sainz picked up the pace on his old used degraded hard tyres, as he said to his engineer before the safety car,
At this pace, I can go forever, so, let me know when to pick-up my pace as I have 1s of pace in my hand
So, in the last few laps, Mercedes drivers were breathing down on Lando’s neck who was losing the DRS of Sainz, as Sainz tried to put up a gap as big as possible between him and the Mercedes drivers.
But suddenly Sainz got an idea of pulling Lando’s McLaren with him by giving him DRS because if he did not do this then Mercedes drivers would eventually hunt him down easily at the end of the race and it would be a win-win for Mercedes and lose-lose for Sainz, therefore he said to his engineer;
Keep telling me the gap between me and Lando every lap
So, he applied his strategy of giving strategic DRS to Lando and pulled Lando with him till the end of the race. That upset Ferrari’s engineer that's why he told Sainz about the gap between him and Lando, Sainz said;
But that wasn't enough as George Russell’s hunger for the win wouldn’t let him settle for P3 and he wanted to grab P1 but his tyres were giving up he was attacked by his teammate Lewis Hamilton who was faster & hungrier like never before, he set his eyes for the win & in the last 3 laps, he asked his engineer BONO;
Geroge has to pick-up the pace
But Geroge knew that he had to pick up the pace but he couldn't because he was struggling as he was under pressure from his teammate & from his mission of hunting down the race leader and winning the race, whilst this his car getting twisty & twitchy because of the old Medium Tyres.
And in the last lap, in the sector, Geroge was completely committed to overtaking Lando’s Mclaren at any cost, Lando was struggling as well, he was also, giving his all to secure his P2 position due to which he went a little out of the line and touched the barrier slightly at turn-10,
George imitated the same tactic but unfortunately, that tactic didn't pan out as well as it did for Lando and he crashed into the barriers which ended his hunt for the win.
However, Lewis was there to continue the mission but he wasn't able to overtake both cars in front of him because he went out of the laps and the chequered flag fell which ended the race with Carlos Sainz on P1, Lando Norris on P2 and Lewis Hamilton on P3.
However, Geroge was really emotional about letting his team & most importantly himself down.
about which Ted Kravitz said;
By seeing George having an existential crisis that and Lewis on podium Toto Wolff was asked about his view on the situation, and he replied;
“Yeah, super that Lewis is on the podium. He had a brilliant race, also at the end he had pace,”
“Just a shame for George because he worked hard for that. It could have been a good third and fourth, lots of points, but now we’ve lost 22 against Ferrari.
“It was just an unfortunate moment; he clipped the wall and it’s a split second of a tiny mistake, and it ends a great race. It’s a shame because he would have deserved [a podium].”
Also, asked if he planned to put an arm around Geroge to support him following the incident, Toto replied;
“Absolutely. As a driver, you are devastated in such a moment, so that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
and also, Danica Patrick (the former American Race driver), commented about Geroge;
“Mistakes happen and he will remember this one forever. He was fast all weekend and calling out this race, wanting to win it from the very beginning.
“He felt like he had it in him telling the team ‘what can we do, I can win’. I’m sure he’s kicking himself for not making the Lando pass complete. Devastation.”
Karun Chandhok (the former F1 driver), also commented on the situation;
“I’ve known George since he was 14 years old and I can tell you he is very hard on himself. He will feel the pain on that for a little while. The good news for him is we go to Japan next week and he can clean the slate and go again.”
Also, with the end of this thrilling, exciting & finest Formula 1 race few records were made again, same as in Monza GP 2023
- Max Verstappen’s consecutively 10 wins in a row streak ended
- Red Bulls streak of winning 15 races since Abu Dhabi 2022 was ended
- Lewis Hamilton added another win under his belt with a total of 196 podiums, becoming the most podiums winning driver in F1 history
- With Max Verstappen ending in P5 and Lewis Hamilton P3, both drivers became the only two drivers that score points in every race this 2023 Formula 1 season.
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While you are at it check out the following stories, if you are completely new to the Formula 1 world or if you are curious to more about the World of Formula 1;
👉 Formula 1 | A Guide For Beginner’s | Rules, Cars, Teams, Drivers & Point System
👉 FORMULA 1 WORLD | The Most Prestigious Motorsport In The World
👉 Formula 1 | Story of Flags You Should Know
👉 Formula 1 | Story & History of Tyers
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