Carlos Sainz of Scuderia Ferrari secured his first win of the 2023 Formula 1 (F1) season on Sep. 17 at the Marina Bay Street Circuit during the 2023 Singapore Grand Prix. This win marks the Spaniard’s second career win. The win also snaps the 10-win streak by Dutchman Max Verstappen. British driver Lando Norris of McLaren F1 was separated by less than a second from Sainz. Norris earned a second-place finish. This marks Norris’s third second-place finish in his 2023 F1 campaign. Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team driver Lewis Hamilton of the United Kingdom finished the Singapore Grand Prix in third place. He also won an extra point for his F1 World Driver’s Championship (WDC) bid with his latest lap of the race in the 47th lap.
The Singapore Grand Prix was filled with drama and unexpected turns throughout. With a margin of 308 points over Mercedes in the F1 World Constructor’s Championships (WCC), Oracle Red Bull Racing has had a dominant season. Their current victorious form started last season, at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Leading into the Singapore Grand Prix, the Austrian team had a 15-race win streak.
Red Bull Sees Blue
All three practice sessions left much to be desired for Red Bull. Their best finish was a P3 in the first practice session by Verstappen. The bad spell for them continued into qualifying. Both Red Bull drivers failed to make it out of the second session of qualifying. The last time this happened was back at the Russian Grand Prix in 2018.
Unlike previous race sessions, this past race weekend featured a competitive race throughout. The podium ended up separated in total by about a second and a half. That doesn’t tell the whole story. United Kingdom’s George Russell of Mercedes had a stellar weekend qualifying in second place up until the last lap of the Grand Prix.
While challenging for possibly the second race win of his career, Russell clipped the right wall on turn 10 of the street circuit with his right rear tire. “I think we were half a car’s length away from winning the race. Had I been able to overtake Lando [Norris] when I had that one opportunity because Carlos [Sainz] did such a great job at dictating the pace and giving Lando the DRS… and then the last lap I don’t know what the hell happened there…,” said Russell.
What’s Next?
After the Sept. 17 race, there was a little bit of movement in the WCC. Hamilton went from fourth to third in the championship, passing Spaniard Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team. Australians Oscar Piastri of Mclaren and Liam Lawson of Scuderia AlphaTauri all moved up a place as well. The WCC saw no movement in places. F1 action returns on Thursday, Sept. 21 at the Lenovo Japanese Grand Prix.
