Here is our full text transcript from the 2023 Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix:
Well then, is today the day that Red Bull’s winning streak that has lasted 15 Grands Prix, three Sprints and 301 days comes to an end? Welcome along to live coverage of what has the potential to be a barnstorming Singapore GP with a hugely exciting front five on the grid and Max Verstappen down in 11th and Sergio Perez 13th.
Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz starts on pole for the second consecutive race with George Russell alongside him in the Mercedes and Maranello team-mate Charles Leclerc behind him in third. And right behind await Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton ready to take advantage of any first corner scrapping that might take place between the front three.
Red Bull have looked nowhere near their imperious best so far this weekend and it will take something truly outstanding and you’d think a lot of luck if they, and Verstappen, are to continue their unprecedented winning runs.
Stay with us for all the action as it happens. The big breaking news out of Aston Martin this morning is that Lance Stroll will not be starting the Singapore GP after his huge qualifying crash. Aston Martin say Stroll is “still sore” follow the high-impact crash and with the team facing a huge repair job on the car they have decided the 24-year-old will not take part in Sunday’s race. Stroll’s focus is now on fully recovering for next weekend’s Japanese GP.
Pole-sitter Carlos Sainz speaking to Sky Sports F1: “I think the Mercedes and Lando we are all going to have similar race pace, even Fernando I think if he manages to get past the Haas, will be in our race. It will all be about strategy, tyre degradation, safety cars, when to pit and not pit. Singapore is quite a special one and it will be an interesting one.”
Green light on in the pit lane and out head the drivers for their reconnaissance laps. Red Bull have won every race this year but surely that will come to an end today, given their struggles all weekend. The last non-Red Bull race winner was George Russell at last year’s Sao Paulo GP. He has a great chance to take a second career F1 win. Ferrari haven’t won since July 2022 in Austria and they have the advantage of two cars in the top three. That could change on Lap 1 though. Keep an eye on Lewis Hamilton in fifth. Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc will start on the soft tyres whereas the other leading runners are on the mediums. Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez are on the hards. Already strategy is key as we get the formation lap under way.
Go go go! Carlos Sainz leads the way and Charles Leclerc jumps George Russell off the line. It’s a perfect start for Ferrari. Lewis Hamilton takes to the run-off after running wheel-to-wheel with George Russell into the first corner. Lewis is ahead for now, while Lando Norris down to fifth. Fernando Alonso up into sixth for Aston Martin, with Esteban Ocon also ahead of Kevin Magnussen.
Lap 2/62: Max Verstappen gains one place to move up to 10th as Sergio Perez remains in 13th. Both Red Bulls are on the hard tyres. Yuki Tsunoda is out of the Singapore GP as he stops at the start of the final sector at Turn 14.. No safety car as the car is in a safe place.
Lap 4/62: Verstappen is on the move as he overtakes Hulkenberg and is now attacking Magnussen for eighth place. Norris also asking for Hamilton to let him through, suggesting over McLaren team radio that the Mercedes was able to carry more speed into Turn One by going straight on. Hamilton had started behind Norris, but the latter argues that is how the Mercedes got ahead. Hamilton does let Norris through although he thinks Russell “pushed him wide” at the first chicane. So it’s Sainz, Leclerc, Russell, Norris, Hamilton and Alonso. That’s your top six.
Lap 6/62: Finally Verstappen overtakes Magnussen down towards Turn 14. It took him a few laps but he’s looking good on these hard tyres. At this rate, Verstappen will be a factor for the podium positions later on…
“Target gap to Sainz, we need three seconds. “At the moment it’s 1.0.” Concerns about overheating this early?
Lap 12/62: George Russell is told Ferrari are going to “sacrifice Leclerc”. That means Mercedes expect Charles Leclerc to start dropping behind Carlos Sainz to create a gap out in front. If the leaders pitted now they would come out in a lot of traffic, so they are playing the waiting game for now. Lap 13/62: Charles thinks his Maranello teammate is “slowing down” which suggests he’s not totally happy with the pace of his Ferrari colleague. This is all about how long will the leaders go at this relatively slow pace before blinking for a pit stop. Ferrari’s tactics explained by Sky Sports F1’s Martin Brundle: “They want Leclerc to back the pack back up so they have time to respond with Sainz if the pack try the undercut.” Carlos Sainz now leads Charles Leclerc by 1.9 seconds on lap 16 of 62.
Lap 16/62: Gianpiero Lambiase tells Max Verstappen to slow down so he’s not in the dirty air of Esteban Ocon, who is in seventh. Verstappen drops back to 1.8s behind the Alpine driver, but there’s clearly an eagerness to push harder.
Lap 17/62: Ferrari are using the Monegasque here as he’s now told to dorp five seconds behind Carlos Sainz in the next five laps. This is to ensure there is no undercut threat for Carlos Sainz and it will also save Charles Leclerc’s tyres too.
Lap 19/62: Logan Sargeant on the wall at Turn 8 but he carries on. However, he’s left his front wing at the corner. We could have a safety car here… Sargeant has made it back to the pits with his damaged car, but the debris shed over the track while he did so seems to have forced Race Control into this Safety Car intervention. Everyone comes into the pit lane apart from Max Verstappen. Carlos Sainz still leads from Verstappen and Russell. Ceclerc is the big loser as he drops behind Russell and Norris after being held in the pits. It was Mercedes’ double stacking that caused Ferrari to have to hold Leclerc in his pit box – and he exited it behind both Russell and Norris. Had he been closer to Sainz on track before the Safety Car that probably wouldn’t have been the case…
Lap 23/62: It’s a great restart from Sainz as he pulls away from Verstappen. Russell is very close to Verstappen but can’t get by. Leclerc nearly hits the back of Norris, who is racing Perez hard. The Ferrari driver goes deep at Turn 7 and loses a place to Hamilton in the battle for sixth. It’s all kicking off now as Russell gets down the inside of Verstappen into Turn 16 for second, while Norris does the same on Perez for fourth. Hamilton tries to get Perez too but is forced to back out of it. Lewis Hamilton goes get Sergio Perez but completed the move off the track at Turn 7. He could face a penalty for that.
Lap 27/62: This is not looking so comfortable for Ferrari now. Without his rear gunner, Carlos Sainz now has George Russell right behind him. Game absolutely on here! In amid all of that hard racing, Fernando Alonso is given a five-second time penalty for going over the white line at pit entry.
Lap 28/62: It’s a copy and paste move into Turn 7, except this time Leclerc cruises by Verstappen. Meanwhile, Perez has a huge train of cars behind him including Alonso, Ocon, Magnussen, Gasly, Piastri and Lawson. Fernando Alonso cuts the first chicane as he tries to attack Sergio Perez. He doesn’t gain anything though and continues his pursuit of the Red Bull driver for seventh.
Lap 32/62: Red Bull might not score any points today if there are no more safety cars. Verstappen and Perez are sixth and seventh, but if they pit, both drivers will be at the rear end of the field, given everyone is so bunched. The championship leader says “it’s like driving on ice” at the moment on these hard tyres which are over 30 laps old now.
Lap 36/62: Not much change at the front with Sainz still one second ahead of Russell, who is one second in front of Norris. Hamilton and Leclerc are there too to make up the top five. If a safety car comes out in around 10-20 laps, it will be fascinating to see if the leaders come in for fresh tyres, but lose track position, or stay out there on old, hard rubber.
Lap 39/62: Out in front, Carlos Sainz asks his engineer when he thinks it’s the right time to push. The Spaniard also reveals he has around one second of pace in hand. Russell is told about that message and says “I’m surprised he didn’t say two”. Esteban Ocon smartly picks off Sergio Perez by ducking underneath the Red Bull driver at Turn 8. Fernando Alonso gets past as well into Turn 14 and Pierre Gasly does too a few corners later. Sergio Perez pits and returns in last place! 25 laps to try and do something about it.
Lap 41/62: Verstappen also pits for the mediums and he comes out in 15th place. That’s right. Both Red Bulls are set to not score any points today as it stands. Remarkable. The winning streak is coming to an end in just over 30 laps.
Lap 43: Esteban Ocon stops at Turn 2! Do we have a safety car? We have a Virtual Safety Car but the leaders have just gone past the pit lane. Only Alex Albon pits for new tyres as he goes onto the mediums. We will see if anyone else pits at the end of this lap under the VSC, but it looks like the teams want track position.
Lap 45/62: Woh, talk about rolling the dice. Still under the Virtual Safety Car, Mercedes pit both their cars for those new medium tyres they had held back. They return in clear air – Russell is now fourth and Hamilton fifth – but they have clean air ahead to re-catch the leading trio when the VSC ends. George Russell is 14 seconds behind Leclerc. But it will be so much quicker on the Merc. It’s a disastrous stop for Alonso as they struggle to get all four tyres back on and he comes back out in 15th.
The Virtual Safety Car ends and we are back to green. Russell is 14 seconds behind Leclerc and Hamilton is five seconds behind his team-mate. The Mercedes should be flying now! Lap 48/62: Russell is lighting up the timing screen as he sets a new fastest lap of the race. The gap from Russell to Leclerc is nine seconds already. This is definitely game on.
Lap 50/62: So, Sainz leads Norris by 1.8 seconds, with Leclerc another two seconds behind. Russell is already within six seconds of Leclerc and 12 seconds behind leader Sainz. Hamilton is 15 seconds adrift of Sainz with 13 laps to go. Liam Lawson may have knocked out Max Verstappen in Q2 yesterday, but he can’t do anything about the Dutchman who is going well on those fresh mediums. Verstappen is in eighth, with Oscar Piastri six seconds up the road.
Lap 52/62: Russell will be on Leclerc’s tail within a couple of laps now – and Ferrari will need their man to do all he can to hold the flying Mercedes up.
Lap 53/62: Russell overtakes Charles. He sets up the move beautifully by cutting back at Turn 14 and gets a great exit to make the move down to Turn 16. Hamilton is also on the charge as he overtakes the Monegasque into Turn 7. This is exactly what Mercedes needed.
Lap 57/62: This is fascinating. The top four are all in the same picture. Norris is slightly quicker than Sainz as well. Russell is about to be within one second of Norris now, with Hamilton just another second behind. Meanwhile, it is a long way from where he usually is up front, but Max Verstappen continues to make his way back up the order and takes Pierre Gasly for sixth. Hamilton is all over Russell and Norris is just staying ahead of both Mercedes. Norris has DRS which he’s using to defend against Russell and it’s all helping Carlos Sainz!
Russell and Hamilton are all over the back of Norris now, but the McLaren is withstanding the pressure so far. Carlos Sainz has opened his gap a bit in the meantime! Final lap: One more lap around the Marina Bay Street Circuit to go and it looks like Sainz is somehow going to hold on. Here we go!
George Russell crashes out! He hits the barrier going into Turn 10 and is out! What a finish and what a win for Carlos Sainz! Ferrari are the ones to finally break Red Bull’s winning run! Norris finishes close behind in second with Lewis Hamilton third after Russell’s late, late exit.
