Checo Perez (Red Bull) has sweated out a victory at the Singapore F1 GP 2022 at the Marina Bay Street Circuit this Sunday after beating Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) by seven seconds. The treacherous race had to be delayed by an hour following a torrential downpour on the track ahead of the event. 

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The Mexican driver repelled any attempt of a pass by the Monegasque in the final part of the race, taking his second victory of the season after Monaco and fourth of his Formula One career. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) completed the podium. And what a great result for McLaren! Lando Norris & Daniel Ricciardo completed the top 5.

RACE CLASSIFICATION (END OF RACE)

Perez wins an incredible race on our return to Marina Bay #SingaporeGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/P14dpRmDQo

— Formula 1 (@F1) October 2, 2022

Max Verstappen (Red Bull), on other hand, didn’t live up to the challenge this time around. The Dutchman, who had the first opportunity to seal his crown this Sunday, almost leaves empty-handed.

Mad Max started in eighth place after a fuel miscalculation in qualifying on Saturday and during the race, he made a mistake that sent him down to twelfth place. He managed to recover four places before the end. 

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Perez passes Leclerc at the start  

Leclerc lost the first place from which he started after being devoured by an impetuous Perez right at the start of the Singapore F1 GP 2022. His partner, Sainz, on the other hand, climbed from fourth to third after overtaking Hamilton. As for Verstappen, he fell back from eighth to twelfth place in the initial meters. 

With Perez at the lead followed one second behind by Leclerc and five seconds behind by Sainz, came the first safety car triggered by a collision between Guanyu Zhou (Alfa Romeo) and Nicholas Latifi on lap eight. 

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Three laps later and the race resumed with Perez followed by Leclerc and Sainz, the latter at a considerable distance. A few meters behind, Max finally passed Vettel for eighth place, and shortly after repeated the move with Gasly and Alonso to position himself in sixth. 

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Perez and Leclerc break away  

By the twentieth lap, a relentless Perez had stretched his advantage with Leclerc to 2.5 seconds. Shortly after Alonso’s Alpine broke down and he was forced to retire triggering the first virtual safety car. 

On resuming the race things remained unchanged. It was lap 23 and Perez kept commanding the Singapore F1 GP 2022 ahead of Leclerc. The young Monegasque was the only one to barely keep up with the pace of the Mexican driver. 

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Three laps later came the second virtual safety car after Alex Albon (Williams) lightly touched a wall. Resuming the battle, Perez escaped ahead once more, now accruing four seconds over Leclerc. 

Shortly after, on lap 28, Esteban Ocon’s Alpine also broke down and a third virtual safety car was called. On reestarting, the excitement had moved on to Hamilton’s chase of Sainz. In his attempt to catch up with the Spaniard, however, the Briton collided head-on with the barriers on lap 33 before re-joining the race. 

First round of pit stops 

On lap 35, passed the equator of the race, the first round of pit stops began. Leclerc, Hamilton – he lost 13.8 seconds changing the front wing – and then Perez and Sainz replaced their wet medium compounds with dry medium ones. 

The Singapore F1 GP 2022, however, was about to change again. In the subsequent lap, an accident involving Yuki Tsunoda (Alpha Tauri) prompted the second safety car, favouring the McLarens of Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo, who had not yet made their first pit stops. 

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 Checo cruises ahead to victory  

The race restarted on lap 39 with Perez leaving too much of a gap with the safety car – a punishable action -. Norris then gained Verstappen’s position. When the latter tried to have his back, he went off track and dropped to twelfth place. The determined Dutchman, however, climbed up four places to finish eighth. 

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At the top of the race, Perez was able to withstand Leclerc’s mounting pressure in the last laps to achieve a well-deserved victory, while Sainz completed the double podium for Ferrari. 

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