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TYRE TALES:
HOW THE RACE WAS WON
Red Bull driver Sergio Perez underlined his status as the man to beat on
street circuits, following his Monaco victory earlier this year. He won the
Singapore Grand Prix ahead of Ferrari team mates Charles Leclerc and Carlos
Sainz. The top three all crossed the finish line on P Zero Yellow medium
tyres.
The start of the race was delayed for an hour following a rainstorm that
fell shortly before the cars were due to go to the grid. Once the rain had
stopped, racing got underway on a wet track with all the cars on the
Cinturato Green intermediate. More than half the race elapsed before the
track was suitable for slicks.
Once more, the Safety Car played a prominent role in Singapore. The first
Safety Car period came on lap seven, with nobody electing to stop for fresh
tyres. There was then a Virtual Safety Car on lap 21, when Mercedes driver
George Russell was the first to go onto P Zero Yellow medium slicks. The
other teams eventually followed the same strategy, with the exception of
McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo and Alfa Romero driver Valtteri Bottas, who both
chose the P Zero Red soft. Excitement in the closing stages came from
Leclerc and Perez trading fastest laps, with the Mexican’s final effort
being a 1m48.165s on the mediums..
BEST OF THE
REST: THE ALTERNATIVE STRATEGY
The McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo got the best use out of
the Cinturato Green intermediate, completing the longest stint of 36 laps on
them. The team split the strategies, with both drivers stopping only once
but Norris going onto medium and Ricciardo onto soft. The result was fourth
and fifth places, with strong points for the British squad.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who started from eighth on the grid, managed to
finish in the points after losing several positions. He made two pit stops
in quick succession: taking the mediums on lap 35 before swapping them for
softs five laps later. The championship leader eventually took the flag in
seventh.
Haas drivers Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher also stopped just once with
split strategies, finishing in 12th and 13th places on the medium and soft
tyres respectively.
Mario Isola - Motorsport Director:
“The Cinturato Green intermediates showed their reliability today. Even
with quite high wear, they delivered excellent performance over several laps
just as we expected, thanks also to the data collected in qualifying. As we
saw yesterday too, the track took some time to dry out because of the water
that remained on the surface. As conditions became drier, the race took on a
new lease of life with drivers moving onto the slicks. The majority of teams
chose the P Zero Yellow medium, which guaranteed an optimal balance between
performance, warm-up, and durability. Drivers had to pay particular
attention not to go off the line in order to avoid water cooling down the
compound, which could affect operating temperatures. To come back to
Singapore in front of so many fans truly showcased Formula 1 at its
spectacular best this weekend.” |
