Sergio Perez took the lead at the start and was never headed. Photo / Don Kennedy
What started out as a challenging weekend for Red Bull for the Singapore Grand Prix ended with Sergio Perez taking victory, his second for the season and the fourth of his F1 career.
The team had arrived at the Marina Bay circuit, which last hosted a grand prix in 2019, due to Covid restrictions preventing racing for two years, amidst paddock rumours that the team had failed an FIA audit regarding the spending cap the governing body introduced for the start of the 2021 season.
That season of course ended controversially with then FIA race director Michael Masi allowing racing on the last lap of the season finale in Abu Dhabi, which enabled Max Verstappen to overtake race leader Lewis Hamilton and win his first world title, and deprive Hamilton of a record breaking eighth title.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff was adamant that Masi had breached the rules by only allowing five lapped cars to unlap themselves instead of eight, a decision an FIA enquiry later established was a breach of the rules, but not sufficient to take Verstappen's title away. It did cost Masi his job though.
Hamilton had stayed out on worn tyres, whilst Verstappen had pitted for fresh tyres under safety-car conditions, so when racing resumed, Hamilton said on the car radio that the outcome had been manipulated and he was a sitting duck when Verstappen made his overtake move. Wolff was screaming on the radio to Masi that it was not right, that the race result should be reversed, and that they had been "robbed".
The furore over that outcome has hardly settled down since, and even though Verstappen has been a runaway winner this year, with 11 wins out of 16 races heading to Singapore. Hamilton on the other hand has not won a race, languishing in sixth place.
When rumours of Red Bull, and possibly Aston Martin, having exceeded the spending limit of $145 million for the 2021 season, was exposed in the media, questions were being asked.
In the case of Red Bull, it was how it was possible the team was guilty of exceeding the FIA cap, when as far as they were concerned, the audit wasn't complete. And even if it was, team boss Christian Horner wanted to know who could have been responsible for a leak.
Mercedes and Ferrari on the other hand, were quick to point the finger at Red Bull, noting rules are rules and if there was a breach, Red Bull should be punished according to the rules, that punishment including fines, a loss of points or even disqualification from the championship.
Horner of course smelt a rat and hinted the leak could only have come from one source, threatening libel action if they could prove who was behind the leak, while the FIA did not issue any statement on the issue.
"We were taken aback by the comments from our two rival teams (Mercedes and Ferrari)," Horner said in an FIA press conference. "The submissions between the team and the FIA are confidential, so I would be intrigued to know what their source of information for these fictitious claims is.
"Perhaps people in glass houses should not throw stones. Is it any coincidence that Max has his first shot at winning the title and we are here talking nothing about cost caps rather than the phenomenal performance he has produced? "
Horner then pointed the finger at Mercedes.
"I think it is an underhand tactic that has been employed to detract from perhaps a lack of performance on track this year. And of course, when references are made to last year, this year, next year we're going to take that extremely seriously."
When asked about Horner's remarks and threat of legal action, Wolff was not giving anything away.
"I didn't see that interview, maybe I should spend time watching it. That's noise," he flippantly stated. "At the end there is a process. On Wednesday there will be certificates of compliance issued or not and then if somebody has not complied, there is a process and governance that is in place.
"For me I'm 100 per cent sure the FIA will do the right thing, so everything else is all chatter until then."
Whether the potential sabotage of last year's title success affected Red Bull or not, in qualifying the team made an uncharacteristic mistake by not giving Verstappen enough fuel to complete six laps, meaning he had to abandon his sixth and fastest lap in Q3, which would likely have knocked Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari, off pole. As it was, he only qualified eighth while his teammate 'Checo' Perez put his car second on the grid.
A huge downpour two hours before the race delayed the start by one hour. When the race did start with all the cars on intermediate tyres, Perez beat the Ferraris of Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, to the first corner, and would never be headed.
Hamilton was running fourth after qualifying third, his best qualifying of the season, with Lando Norris in the McLaren fifth and Fernando Alonso, having his 350th F1 start, meaning he has overtaken Kimi Raikkonen's record for the most F1 starts, in sixth place.
But it wouldn't be a memorable race for Alonso. Although he had the satisfaction of holding out Verstappen's charge towards the front for many laps, the Alpine eventually gave up the ghost.
Likewise for the other Alpine driven by Esteban Ocon. Alpine and McLaren are fighting over fourth place in the championship, and Norris and his teammate Daniel Ricciardo, who will leave the team at season end, finished fourth and fifth respectively, putting McLaren four points ahead of Alpine.
The McLaren drivers were aided by Hamilton damaging his front wing after hitting the barrier, eventually finishing ninth, and Verstappen cooking his tyres when trying to overtake Norris, leaving him a frustrated seventh at the end.
"Of course it's better than eighth, but it's not what I'm here for, not with a car like that and not with what we showed in practice. It was incredibly messy," Verstappen remarked.
Ahead of Verstappen was the Aston Martin's of Lance Stroll (sixth) while Sebastian Vettel was eighth, both making a return to points scoring positions after a difficult year.
But it was Perez's performance in holding out Leclerc lap after lap that had the 100,000-plus crowd on their wet, but drying, feet.
Late in the race Perez was told he may have time penalties for not staying less than 10 car lengths behind the safety-car, and he was told to "disappear" down the road, which he did, increasing a lead of 1.3 seconds over Leclerc to 7.595 seconds at the end. He was duly given a 5-second time penalty, not enough to deprive him of a deserved victory.
"It was certainly my best performance," Perez told the media. "I controlled the race, although the [tyre] warm-up was pretty difficult. The last few laps were so intense. I really didn't feel it so much in the car, but when I got out of it, I felt it. I pushed, I gave everything for the win today."
In terms of the time penalty he was ultimately given, was he aware of doing anything wrong, he was asked?
"No, I have no idea what's going on. They just told me I was under investigation, to increase the gap, so that is what we did."
Perez has closed the gap in points to Verstappen to 106 points, and is just two points behind Leclerc, but he knows heading to Suzuka this weekend for the Japanese GP, that the odds heavily favour Verstappen
"Obviously, it's nice for Max to get the title in Japan, and for the team - it will be very special for Honda. All in all, a fantastic day."
Leclerc conceded that his start from pole "wasn't good enough" and once Red Bull "put their tyres in the window, they are very strong." But when asked about Verstappen's chances of taking the title in Japan, he gave a blunt response.
"I know it's only a matter of time before Max takes his title, but when that happens is really not important for me right now."
There are five races left and a maximum of 130 points including fastest lap, but if Perez and Leclerc finish ahead of him in Japan, the title may not be decided until Austin, Texas.
Then there is the question of what may happen if, as rumoured, Red Bull is found to have seriously breached the FIA imposed spending limit.
If Mercedes is the team that leaked the rumour it tells us that the ill feeling between the two teams has spilt over into this season and Mercedes, without a win so far in 2022, is baying for blood. Both championships looked to headed the way of Verstappen and Red Bull, but their rivals will be doing everything, on and off the track it seems, to try and stop them.
Sources: F1.com; Planet F1