Thanks for tuning into Sportstar’s live coverage of the Singapore Grand Prix 2022. This was Nihit Sachdeva taking you through the lap-by-lap updates as the action unfolded at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.
9PM IST - That’s it from Singapore. A brilliant drive from Perez saw him take the race win today. It will still be interesting to see what the stewards decide about a possible safety car infringement from the Mexican. The championship is still alive going into Japan but only just.
8:58PM IST - Perez in his post-race interview - “That was my best performance [in F1]. The last three laps were so intense. I gave everything for the win today”
8:50PM IST -Here’s your provisional top 10
Verstappen closes in on Vettel. Can he go past the four-time world champion? And he does. It is party time for Sergio Perez who led from opening lap and is the winner of the Singapore Grand Prix!!!
Leclerc now more than four seconds behind Perez. The Mexican is well on his way to cover a potential five-second post-race penalty. Hamilton goes for a lunge on Vettel, locks up and Verstappen gets the benefit as he goes up to 8th.
Hamilton behind Vettel, Verstappen behind Hamilton. An amazing battle going on for 7th place between three world champions. Russell has taken the fastest lap honour for now.
Leclers a little over three seconds behind race leader Perez. Meanwhile, the battle for eighth between Hamilton and Verstappen goes on.
Leclerc has been told by his race engineer to avoid the huge bump on Turn 7. Verstappen on Hamilton’s tail.
Perez retakes the fastest lap honours. A bit of a wobble from Leclerc. Perez would look to win by a margin of more than five seconds in order to nullify any post-race penalties due to Safety Car incident.
A little over 10 minutes to go before we see the chequered flag. Perez continues to lead while Leclerc, second, has the fastest lap.
Verstappen goes past Bottas, is now 10th and into the points. Safety Car infringement by Perez will be investigated by stewards after the race. Verstappen goes past Gasly and is 9th now.
Quarter of an hour left. Leclerc has the fastest lap. Race Control is looking into a possible incident of Safety Car infringement by Perez
As per the prediction data provided by F1, Leclerc can catch Perez after two laps.
Hamilton, 8th, chasing Vettel. Meanwhile, Leclerc continues to search for a way past Perez.
Verstappen goes past Magnussen and is up to 11th.
Lock up from Perez into Turn 14 but nothing to worry about for now as he keeps his lead.
The straight-line speed of Perez is helping him tremendously.
Leclerc continues his pursuit of Perez but the Mexican is managing the situation nicely. It’s Lap 44. One more lap and it wil be a full points race.
Leclerc is putting the pressure on Perez. Verstappen, meanwhile, sets the fastest lap.
Verstappen - “I am having issues with the drivability of the engine.” More trouble for the championship leader. Meanwhile, DRS has been enabled.
Leclerc is gaining on Perez.
Verstappen takes a pit stop - 3 seconds. He is down to last but not for long as Russell has got a puncture after a collision with Schumacher and the Dutchman overtakes him.
Lock up for Verstappen!!!! The Red Bull driver, who went ahead of Norris, could not apply the breaks and went into the escape road. He is down to eighth, just ahead of Hamilton.
Safety Car is Ending.
And we have the clock ticking. A little over half an hour left for the race to be completed. Will we get a full race?
Fourteen cars left on the track.
A 3.3s pit stop for Norris under Safety Car. Ricciardo follows and gets a 3.1s pit stop.
A 2.8s pit stop for Perez. Excellent from Red Bull. For Sainz, a 3.5s pit stop. Verstappen - 2.4s. Meanwhile, Tsunoda has gone into the barriers at Turn 10. The AlphaTauri driver is out. Russell gets a cheap pit stop.
Pit stop for Leclerc who switches to mediums. A 5.3s one. Terrible. Hamilton too comes in but that’s not just for tyre change. He has got a damaged front wing too. Verstappen up to 5th for now.
Into the pits comes Gasly.
Hamilton goes straight into the wall at Turn 7!!! Rejoins the race, Norris goes through but not Verstappen. Hamilton - “Car looks intact”
Russell is struggling in the final sector with slicks and is still 15th, behind Bottas. That streak of top-five finishes looks set to end.
Verstappen is now very close to Norris. However, does not have enough pace to overtake.
No pit stops from anyone else except Russell and Magnussen. VSC ending. Verstappen goes side by side with Norris but gets his timing wrong. Verstappen stays at 6th.
Just 15 cars on the track now. Hamilton sticking close to Sainz as VSC is still on.
Another yellow flag as Esteban Ocon stops at Turn 13. Smoke coming out of the Alpine car. Ocon, too, is out of the race. That makes it five retirements for the day and we are yet to reach the halfway stage. VSC deployed but no pit stops yet.
No pit stops from anyone else except Albon. The Williams driver is out of the race. Terrible day for the team.
Double yellow flags out as Alex Albon goes into the wall at Turn 8. Virtual Safety Car deployed.
Russell is struggling with the mediums. Perhaps, another pit stop shortly? Meanwhile, the fastest lap time is back with Perez.
Hamilton beginning to put pressure on Sainz. Meanwhile, Verstappen closes in on Norris. The Dutchman has set the fastest lap.
VSC is ending and we are back to racing.
Russell makes the pit stop and switches to mediums. Pit stop timing - 3.1s.
Alonso’s engine has given up and he is out of the race! Verstappen up to 6th. Not the way the Spaniard would have wanted to finish his 350th race. Virtual Safety Car is on.
Perez is nearly 2.5 second clear of Leclerc. Top stuff from the Mexican driver who has kept his lead intact after a great start.
Alonso continues to frustrate Verstappen but the Dutchman is closing in. It is not about if, it is about when.
Sainz says, “We are not far away from switching to slick tyres.” Interesting as Perez does not think so.
Perez leading the race with no problems for now. Leclerc though has got the fastest lap.
The battle for sixth between Verstappen and Alonso still on. The Spaniard just about managing to keep reigning world champion at bay for now.
No further action on the first lap incident between Magnussen and Verstappen.
Gap between Alonso and Norris has increased but it has reduced between Verstappen and Alonso. The Red Bull driver is making moves and how!
Alonso, in his 350th race, chasing young Lando Norris for 6th place. Gap less than a second. Right behind Alonso is Verstappen.
Perez still in the lead and increasing the gap between him and Leclerc.
Verstappen finally manages to go ahead of Vettel in Turn 5 and is now 8th, the position from which he started the race. In the same lap, Verstappen overtakes Gasly and is up to 7th!
Safety car is ending.
Latifi is out of the race as well. Safety car still on track but no one is coming in for an early pit stop. Slight contact between Russell and Bottas as the current Merc driver goes for an overtake on the former Merc driver.
Magnussen has comes into the pits to get the front wing replaced and is now back on track. Meanwhile, Safety Car is on the track as well.
Magnussen has been shown the black and orange flag. The Haas driver had had contact with Verstappen early on in the race and needs to go to the pits to get things sorted with his car. Latifi has got a puncture while Zhou Guanyu has stopped at Turn 5 and is out of the race. Yellow flag is out.
Norris on Team Radio - “As you can tell, it is not drying up very quickly.” The McLaren driver is currently fifth. The duel between Vettel and Verstappen continues.
Battle between Vettel and Verstappen for eighth.
Verstappen goes past Yuki Tsunoda to ninth. Leclerc a little over a second behind race leader Perez.
Sebastian Vettel, who has a great record in Singapore, got off to a tremendous start. From 14th, he is now at 8th.
Verstappen makes up two places quickly and is now into the top 10. Too easy for the championship leader.
It is “Lights out and away we go!” Perez gets a better start than Leclerc and leads going into Turn 1. Sainz overtakes Hamilton to go to third. Verstappen is down to 12th.
6:36PM IST - Formation lap is underway with all cars on intermediate tyres.
6:30PM IST - One final look at the Marina Bay Street Circuit. Fireworks expected tonight.
6:25PM IST - Look who’s here!
6:20PM IST - Fifteen minutes to go. Wet conditions. We have seen epic wins in such situations before from the likes of Hamilton and Verstappen. Will today be another such instance?
6:15PM IST - TEAM RADIO: Perez: “It seems to be quite wet for this tyre (the inters)”
6:10PM IST - Another driver who could also be driving his final Formula One race in Singapore tonight is Nicolas Latifi who has not be retained by Williams for next season.
6:05PM IST - Unfavourable conditions at the moment.
6PM IST - While we wait for race to begin, here’s some quality content from AlphaTauri and guess what, you are set to get it next year as well since Yuki Tsunoda will drive for them next season too.
5:57PM IST - The pit lane is now open!
5:55PM IST - For four-time champion Sebastian Vettel, this will be the final time he will race in Singapore as the German driver, who starts from 13th, is set to retire after the current season. Over the last few years, Vettel has been vocal about his concerns for the environment with regards to climate change and even admitted the conflict between his beliefs while being part of a fuel-guzzling sport was a factor in his decision to retire at the end of the year. Here’s the full piece by S. Dipak Ragav - Vettel calls for independent monitoring of F1’s ambitious environment-friendly targets
5:50PM IST - If 45 of the designated 61 laps are completed before any further rain intervention, full points will be awarded. Otherwise, different permutations come into play at the 25% race distance and 50% race distance.
5:45PM IST -Positive scenes from the venue
5:40PM IST - How can Verstappen win the title today? Here are the various scenarios -
- If Verstappen wins the race with the fastest lap, Leclerc finishes eighth or lower and Perez finishes 4th or lowe, Verstappen wins the title.
- If Verstappen wins the race (without the fastest lap), Leclerc finishes 9th or lower and Perez finishes 4th or lower (without fastest lap), Verstappen wins the title.
- If Verstappen finishes second, the title race moves on to Japan.
5:35PM IST - There will be a change in the starting grid. Mercedes’ George Russell, who had finished 11th in qualifying, will start the race from the pitlane after taking a new internal combustion engine, turbocharger, motor generator unit – heat (MGU-H), motor generator unit – kinetic (MGU-K), energy store and control electronics.
5:29PM IST- And we have the start time - 6:35PM IST. Update from our correspondent S. Dipak Ragav -
5:25PM IST - In case you didn’t know, even if Verstappen does not seal the title today, Singapore GP 2022 is set to be a historic one as Fernando Alonso will line up for his 350th start – surpassing Kimi Raikkonen as the outright record holder.
5:20PM IST -Latest update
5:10PM IST - As per our correspondent S. Dipak Ragav, further update on the start time is expected in the next five minutes.
5:05PM IST - In off-track news, Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes F1 team has been fined €25,000 over.............nose stud - FULL REPORT
4:55PM IST - F1 confirms delayed start -
4:50PM IST -While we wait for more updates on the start time of the race, here’s a recap of yesterday’s qualifying session -
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc secured pole position with a time of 1:49.412s in changeable track conditions even as title-favourite Max Verstappen had to settle for only eighth place.
Red Bull’s Sergio Perez took second, just two-hundredths of a second behind Leclerc, with Lewis Hamilton and the other Ferrari of Carlos Sainz completing the second row of the grid.
However, the big shock of the day was Verstappen being asked by his team to abort his final qualifying lap just as it looked like the reigning champion could have challenged for the front row of the grid as he was improving on his time even as Leclerc had made a mistake on his final run and aborted it.
Verstappen was furious with his team’s call to abort the lap but the team just gave a coded message that it will be explained later. He later said that his Red Bull car would not have had enough fuel left in the car to provide a sample to the FIA, had he completed the lap and tried to return to the pits.
In case the FIA finds the car did not have enough fuel, the car will be excluded from qualifying and sent to the back of the grid.
4:40PM IST - Further update from our correspondent S. Dipak Ragav-
“Message from Race Control. Pit lane open and whole start procedure delayed. Update in 30 minutes. Minimum of ten minutes notice will be given.”
4:35PM IST - Live scenes from the Marina Bay Street Circuit do not look good. We might have a delayed start.
PREVIEW (By S. Dipak Ragav)
Max Verstappen will be chasing history at the Singapore Grand Prix, which returns to the Formula One calendar after two years, as he will have the chance to secure his second world driver’s title this weekend around the Marina Bay Street Circuit.
The reigning champion turned 25 on Friday and could cap off his birthday weekend in style if he can join an elite list of only 16 drivers who have won multiple titles. The Red Bull driver has a lead of 116 points over nearest rival Charles Leclerc of Ferrari and will need a 138-point lead by the end of Sunday over the pursuing pack to leave Singapore as a double world champion.
To seal the title under glittering lights at the place that birthed the first night race in F1 history, Verstappen needs to do something he has not done before - win the Singapore GP and hope his rivals have a poor weekend.
Verstappen’s best finish has been second here in 2018, but he has never come here with a Red Bull car that has had a chance of winning. While the second title is almost a foregone conclusion barring an unusual set of jeopardy over the next six races, to seal it this weekend Verstappen needs to gain 22 points over his main rival Leclerc, 13 points over team-mate Sergio Perez and six over George Russell. Also, he needs to ensure Carlos Sainz doesn’t outscore him by 11 points.
Winning streak
Though his maiden title in 2021 came under controversial circumstances in the Abu Dhabi GP last year, Verstappen’s second title is set to be one without any such asterisks attached to it. The 24-year-old is on a five-race winning streak having won 11 races this year already. He is on track to beat the record of most wins in a season which is 13 held by Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel.
In races he has completed this year, he has finished outside the podium only once - at the British GP - due to circumstances outside his control as his car collected debris which affected its performance.
After new rules were introduced at the start of the year, Verstappen took time to get used to the new generation of cars with his team-mate Perez matched evenly in performance at the start of the year. However, as the car has been developed, Verstappen has been able to find a higher level of performance from the machinery and is on course for his second title.
When and where to watch?
The Singapore Grand Prix 2022 will be telecast on the Star Sports Network and live streamed on Disney+Hotstar from 5:30PM IST on Sunday.
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