Why Verstappen's dominance left rivals scrabbling for alternatives in Singapore

"Max, under a safety car we would lose position to Leclerc," fretted Max Verstappen's race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase over the radio with 10 laps of the Singapore Grand Prix to run. "And I'm worried about restarting on this tyre set."
 
"Mmmmnnnnffffff," more or less, came the response. Verstappen was in the grip of radio issues rather than attempting to reprise the famous last words of Michael Hutchence.
 
"If you would accept pitting, say nothing; if you don't want to pit, key up on the radio and try to say something." 
 
Radio silence ensued, from which we could conclude that Max would be prepared to sacrifice track position – because he was fully confident in his capacity to overtake, given a tyre advantage, on a track where overtaking is nigh-on impossible. That would be a better option than being a sitting duck at a restart on old mediums versus a set of softs seven racing laps younger.

That was the measure of Verstappen and Red Bull's superiority around the Marina Bay Circuit this weekend: even identifying a potential threat revealed the underlying strengths. The fact is, neither McLaren nor Mercedes were fast enough to challenge Red Bull in Singapore, while Ferrari's chief hope lay in outqualifying Verstappen and guarding track position. When both Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton fell fractionally short on Saturday, pre-empting track evolution too much with setup tweaks which put their cars too ‘on the nose' through Q3, there was only one thing left to do: split the strategies for both cars, throw them at the wall and see what stuck.
 
Neither of them did. Leclerc, from P2, started on scrubbed C5 softs because he had no new ones available. His job was to stage a lunge at Turn 1. Hamilton started on new mediums with a view to running longer into the race. Verstappen, on new softs, had a slightly slower launch than Leclerc but, once he got traction, he ran Charles all the way over to the left, almost into the pit exit, forcing Leclerc to capitulate as they bore down on the apex of the corner.
 
From there it was game over for Verstappen's rivals, save for some deployment issues in the opening laps. Leclerc initially looked like he could offer a threat but by lap 18 Max was over four seconds clear. Hamilton by then was 6.7s behind his team-mate, complaining that his tyres were giving up, and being threatened by Kimi Antonelli's Mercedes and the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. Even if Hamilton wasn't acting as a mobile roadblock, they would still only be circulating in Leclerc's wake and unable to present a threat to Max.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing

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At the end of that lap Hamilton pitted for a set of scrubbed softs, a clear sign that Ferrari had long since departed Plan A and was beginning its journey through the alphabet. Behind Piastri there was a 16-second gap to Liam Lawson's Racing Bulls but it was marginal as to whether Hamilton could pit and emerge into it; he couldn't, rejoining behind Lawson and taking a lap and a half to make his way past at Turn 14.
 
With Hamilton out of the way, Antonelli picked up his pace, but immediately began picking up track-limits strikes. Leclerc continued to drift away from Verstappen, saying his tyres were on their way out; for some cars the softs were lasting much longer than expected, for others not so much.
 
If Hamilton's earlier stop called to mind his successful Barcelona contra-strategy, nobody else was prepared to bite and respond immediately. Antonelli went onto new mediums at the end of lap 23, followed by Leclerc a lap later, by which time he was over 9s behind Verstappen. He emerged only fractionally ahead of Lewis, triggering the usual back-and-forth between the Ferrari drivers and the pitwall whereby Hamilton lobbied to be allowed past, while Leclerc set the fastest lap of the race in lieu of saying "no". 
Max was able to hold out until the end of lap 32 before pitting for new mediums, emerging still in the lead because Norris, who was 20s behind anyway, also pitted.
 
As has often been the case this season, it was an Aston Martin retiring and triggering a mid-race caution period that provided the opportunity to change the game. On lap 39 Lance Stroll locked up and speared into the run-off area at Turn 14, then appeared to cook his clutch as he got going again, halting on the curving back straight. That triggered yellow flags which were subsequently upgraded to a Virtual Safety Car deployment.
 
At that point the Ferraris were circulating four seconds apart and passing through Turns 10 and 11, Leclerc 5.7s down on Verstappen. It made little sense for Max to stop again, given his tyres were only seven laps old, but Hamilton had done 20 laps on scrubbed softs. Surely he at least would take advantage of a cheap stop? With four seconds between the cars, a double-stack would not be too costly even if both Ferraris stopped.
 
That was the signal, but Hamilton overruled the pit and stayed out. Leclerc pitted and emerged ahead of Norris, while Antonelli came out just behind the McLaren. George Russell – who, in the words of the late Murray Walker, would have bad luck if he had any luck at all – had made his way to P7 after starting 19th owing to an engine penalty, but was then denied a VSC stop because the caution was lifted as he entered the pitlane.

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari

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With 22 laps to run, Hamilton's fading hopes relied on another safety car. He was 8s down on Verstappen, with no hope of chipping away at that gap, while Leclerc was 10s behind him and closing fast on softs which, though scrubbed, were much fresher. By lap 46 Leclerc was on Hamilton's tail and another set of tetchy conversations with the pitwall were in the offing. Charles cut that off by sweeping by on the run to Turn 7 – as you would, with a 21-lap tyre offset.
 
Hamilton was left to rue the error of his ways as he fell back by degrees into the hands of Norris and Antonelli. Leclerc set the fastest lap of the race but by now he was nearly 15s away from the leader. At the time of Lambiase's radio message to Verstappen on lap 52, Charles had closed to within 10s, but it was still a stretch to imagine he could challenge for the win.
 
Hamilton would at least provide some entertainment in the final laps of what had been a tediously processional grand prix, even by Singapore's standards. On lap 54 he speared over the run-off at Turn 2 defending from Norris, who also strayed beyond track limits, enabling Antonelli to slip by into fourth place. A stewards' investigation into Hamilton leaving the track and gaining an advantage was rendered moot by Antonelli nailing the Ferrari into Turn 16 later around the lap. Norris then did the job on Hamilton into Turn 10 on lap 55.
 
Hamilton drifted back into the hands of Piastri as Norris tried unsuccessfully to get within five seconds of Antonelli, who was on the cusp of a penalty for repeated track-limits infractions. Piastri went around the outside of the Ferrari at Turn 16 at the end of the penultimate lap.
 
Verstappen crossed the line 7.335s ahead of Leclerc, with Antonelli a further 17.238s behind in third. Hamilton, who apologised to the team for his strategy call over the radio, trailed in sixth behind Norris and Piastri, 53.188s off the winner. He went to the medical centre after the race and was excused media duties. 
 
"It's true that we know that track position is key and the start is key," said Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur.
 
"We decided to split the cars to attack Max with Charles on the start. He was almost there but not enough. It's happened that we have to do the job in quali also, and it's more yesterday than this morning [ie a factor of qualifying rather than decisions made in strategy meeting]."

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari

Photo by: Alastair Staley / LAT Images via Getty Images

Of the VSC call, he said: "[It] was very clear. We were P2-P3 on the track. We called two cars, ‘Guys, you pit behind the VSC'. One of my guys said, ‘No, I prefer to stay on track'. Or he didn't say – he said, ‘I missed the pit entry.'
 
"Don't blame the team."

"The start was critical, so that was just good enough," said Max. "Something was not particularly right at the start, so I need to understand what went wrong there. Before releasing the clutch, it didn't feel good. 
 
"But, yeah, it was just good enough. Then we had a few laps with some deployment issues, so that's where Charles almost got me into Turn 7. And once we had cleared the deployment problems, it was fine. 
 
"The car was really good on the tyres. I could really manage them well. 
 
"But to be honest, I think it was one of the first times that I've driven in clean air here in Singapore in the race, so I guess that's also nice. 
 
"It's been just a fantastic weekend for us. We were flying on the soft, we were okay on the medium, and then of course with the VSC, I think it was right what Charles did with pitting and going back on a soft tyre. 
 
"But, yeah, we just had it under control – and of course, really happy to win here."
 
Until this year, Max had never won in Singapore. Now he's won twice in one weekend – a fitting signifier for Red Bull's resurgence.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing

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