By Mark Karp
Sergio Perez won the Singapore Grand Prix in his Red Bull. Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari finished second, 7.595 seconds behind the winner. Carlos Sainz in the second Ferrari was third, 15.305 seconds behind.
The officials said they will investigate a two potential safety car infringements for Perez after the race, which could penalise him as much as 10 seconds.
The win is Perez’s second of the season and fourth of his career.
Lando Norris (26.133s) in the McLaren-Mercedes was fourth, followed by his team mate Daniel Ricciardo (58.282s) was fifth, Lance Stroll (1m01.330s) in the Aston Martin-Mercedes was sixth, Max Verstappen (1m03.825s) in the Red Bull was seventh, Sebastian Vettel (1m05.032s) in the second Aston Martin was eighth, Lewis Hamilton (1m06.515s) in the Mercedes GP was ninth and Pierre Gasly (1m14.576s) in the AlphaTauri-Red Bull took the final point in tenth.
Leclerc sits on pole with Perez alongside on the front row, Hamilton and Sainz are on the second row, Alonso and Norris on the third row, Gasly and Verstappen on the fourth row, and Magnussen and Tsunoda rounding out the top ten positions. Russell will start from the pitlane.
Two hours before the start the skies opened with rain, and the opening of the pitlane was delayed by half an hour. With the darkness it is not expected that the water will dry quickly, and we are looking at a damp race. After the half hour delay it was still raining, and the officials said they would give an update shortly.
At 7:55p local time the officials announced that the pitlane will open in 30 minutes, and the race is scheduled to start one hour later than the original time.
As the start time approaches the track was drying, and the temperature has dropped.
At 9:05p local tine the field was off on the formation lap with the cars on intermediate wet tyres.
The lights went out and the race began with Leclerc got a slow start, Perez took the lead, Sainz and Hamilton battle and Sainz takes third. Verstappen drops to 12th. Albon spins and continues.
Perez leads Leclerc, Sainz, Hamilton, Norris and Alonso.
At lap 3 Perez set fast lap at 2m00.875s.
On lap 4 Verstappen passes Tsunoda for ninth.
Hamilton is on the radio saying he has no grip.
On lap 4 Perez sets another fast lap at 2m00.310s, and leads Leclerc by 1.2 seconds.
Russell passes Latifi for 17th.
On lap 5 Leclerc sets fast lap at 2m00.219s.
Norris tells the team that it is not drying out very quickly.
On lap 6 Perez sets fast lap at 2m00.094s.
Magnussen is given the black and orange flag for wing damage and will need to come in.
Zhou and Latifi make contact and Zhou is stranded on the side of the track.
Magnussen pits and takes a new front wing and changes intermediate tyres. The safety car is out. Latifi pits and retires with suspension damage.
At lap 10 Perez leads Leclerc, Sainz, Hamilton, Norris, Alonso, Gasly, Vettel, Verstappen, and Tsunoda in tenth, Stroll, Ricciardo, Schumacher, Ocon, Bottas, Russell, Albon and Magnussen in 18th behind the safety car.
At the end of lap 10 the safety car comes in and the race resumes with Perez still leading. Verstappen is pressuring Vettel and passes him for eighth, and then passes Gasly for seventh.
Alonso is chasing Norris for fifth.
On lap 11 Perez sets fast lap at 1m59.580s, and leads Leclerc by 0.9 seconds.
On lap 12 Leclerc sets fast lap at 1m59.328s.
Verstappen is closing on Alonso.
At lap 15 Perez leads Leclerc by 1.7 seconds, followed by Sainz (8.1s), Hamilton (9.3s), Norris (14.3s), Alonso (17.0s), Verstappen (17.6s), Gasly (24.4s), Vettel (25.8s), and Tsunoda (28.6s) in tenth.
On lap 15 Perez sets fast lap at 1m59.016s.
Norris reports that the tyres are getting more slippy.
On lap 17 Leclerc sets fast lap at 1m58.983s.
Verstappen reports to the team that it is still too wet to go to slicks.
On lap 18 Perez sets fast lap at 1m58.905s, and leads Leclerc by 2.2 seconds.
On lap 19 Perez sets fast lap at 1m58.717s.
Teams are questioning if the circuit is dry enough to change to slick tyres.
On lap 20 Perez sets fast lap at 1m58.519s, and leads Leclerc by 3.2 seconds.
Alonso pulls off the track with an engine problem, the virtual safety car is out.
Russell pits and takes on medium dry tyres.
The race will be a timed race, ending at the 2 hour mark.
Russell spins and continues.
Red Bull tells Verstappen that Russell has taken dry tyres, and Verstappen responds back, “that is brave to the moment”.
The VSC has ended and the race resumes.
Hamilton is closing on Sainz in third.
On lap 23 Verstappen sets fast lap at 1m58.377s.
Russel is still out on dry tyres, but is running 10s slower than the intermediate runners.
On lap 24 Perez sets fast lap at 1m58.332s.
At lap 25 Perez leads Leclerc by 3.2 seconds, followed by Sainz (18.0s), Hamilton (19.4s), Norris (29.1s), Verstappen (30.0s), Gasly (41.5s), Vettel (48.6s), Stroll (59.5s), and Ricciardo (1m11.2s) in tenth place.
Perez sets fast lap at 1m58.161s.
Albon hits the wall and is stuck. The Virtual safety car is out. Albon is off, but his front wing is stuck in the wall. The marshals clear the wing and the VSC is finished.
On lap 28 Ocon is off the track with an engine failure, and there is a yellow flag in that corner.
The Virtual safety car is now out.
On lap 30 the VSC period is over, Hamilton chasing Sainz.
Vertappen almost hits Norris.
On lap 31 Leclerc sets fast lap at 1m56.259s and trails Perez by 3.3 seconds.
On lap 33 Hamilton brakes too late, goes off the track and touches the wall, Norris goes by. Hamilton gets going but has wing damage.
Gasly, Tsunoda, Bottas and Magnussen all pit.
On lap 35 Leclerc pits from second an takes medium dry tyres and rejoins in third.
Hamilton and Vettel pit. Hamilton takes medium tyres and rejoins in ninth.
On lap 36 Perez pits from the lead and switches to medium tyres, and rejoins still in the lead.
Sainz pits, Verstappen and Stoll pit as well.
Tsunoda goes into the barrier at turn 10 on his new slick tyres, the full safety car is out.
Russell pits again for another set of medium tyres and rejoins 14th. Norris and Ricciardo pit. Ricciardo and Bottas are on soft tyres.
On lap 37, behind the safety car, Perez leads Leclerc, Sainz, Norris, Verstappen, Ricciardo, Stroll, Vettel, Hamilton and Gasly in tenth, Schumacher, Bottas, Magnussen and Russell in 14th.
At the end of lap 39 the Safety car pull in and the race resumes with Perez leading with Leclerc and Sainz behind. Verstappen tries to pass Norris, locks his brakes and goes off the run off and comes back on behind Hamilton in ninth. His tyres are flat spotted and he pits for new soft tyres.
Russel and Schumacher touch and Russell is running slow with a puncture.
On lap 41 Leclerc sets fast lap with 1m53.302s.
Perez is under investigation for a restart violation.
Leclerc closing on Perez in the lead.
On lap 42 Leclerc sets fast lap at 1m52.533s, the two battling for the lead.
Perez says he is having an issue with grip.
The dry pass is now fast enough and the DRS is now enabled.
On lap 43 Leclerc sets fast lap at 1m51.724s.
Norris is chasing Sainz for third.
On lap 45 Leclerc sets fast lap at 1m50.328s.
At lap 45 Perez leads Leclerc by 0.5 seconds, followed by Sainz (10.0s), Norris (11.3s), Ricciardo (23.6s), Stroll (29.7s), Vettel (32.0s), Hamilton (33.2s), Gasly (34.6s(), and Bottas (37.7s) in tenth.
Leclerc is continue to pressure Perez with 20 minutes remaining.
On lap 48 Perez sets fast lap at 1m49.500s, and leads Leclerc by 1.5 seconds and gets a little breathing space.
On lap 49 Leclerc sets fast lap at 1m49.177s.
Russell passes Schumacher for 13th.
On lap 51 Verstappen passes Bottas for tenth place.
The officials announce that they will investigate a potential safety car infrigment for Perez after the race.
Verstappen passes Gasly for ninth.
On lap 52 Perez sets fast lap at 1m48.841s.
On lap 53 Russell pits for soft tyres.
On lap 53 Perez sets fast lap at 1m48.578s, and leads Leclerc by 3.2 seconds, with 7 minutes remaining.
On lap 54 Perez goes faster with 1m48.576s.
On lap 56 Russell sets fast lap at 1m46.458s.
On lap 59 Hamilton brakes too late behind Vettel and Verstappen passes him for eighth.
At lap 59 Perez crosses the flag first, followed by Leclerc and Sainz.
On the final lap Verstappen passes Vettel for seventh place.
