The 2022 Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix was a unique opportunity for Ferrari to return to the top of the podium. From qualifying it seemed that he could have a chance of repeating the victory they garnered in the last edition of that night race on the Marina Bay street circuit with Sebastian Vettel three seasons ago, but things went wrong from the very start.
Charles Leclerc’s pole position was of little use to the Prancing Horse , as Sergio Pérez managed to take the lead, leaving the Monegasque behind, followed by his teammate, Carlos Sainz. The driver from Madrid managed to overtake Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes when the traffic lights went out, although the FIA stewards investigated the action for a moment.
The international federation did not see anything punishable and the Spaniard remained in the podium positions with the intermediate tires due to the rain that fell a few minutes before the start. Sainz was one of the first drivers to ask his team about mounting dry tires after seeing that on lap 18 a fast track for these compounds began to be seen.
However, the Ferrari man was more than ten seconds behind the leaders, so any movement would be in vain and he only risked losing places to Lando Norris, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and Max Verstappen. So, he continued on the track until the various Virtual Safety Cars and safety cars forced everyone to put on slick tires.
Despite the fact that he was at risk with the McLaren of his old teammate, Lando Norris, the man from Madrid kept the podium until he crossed the checkered flag, far from the pace of Leclerc and Pérez, and is approaching fourth place in the world championship that is in hands of George Russell, who did not score.
“It was a tough race because I wasn’t comfortable and we suffered a lot to stay on track and not make mistakes,” said Sainz to the DAZN microphones at the end of the test in Marina Bay. “The positive thing is that we didn’t do it, we made a good start and that allowed us to finish on the podium, but from the inside it was a lot of suffering [the race]”.
When asked about the possibility of mounting the dry compounds , the rider from Madrid explained: “I was more interested in putting the slicks on as soon as possible, there was nothing at stake, what’s more, there was more to lose than gain by putting the dry ones. If I had known what would happen, I would have played it, but just going third as I was did not make much sense”.
“It was a strange track, it took a long time to dry, even at the end, after so many laps, there were wet sections, so it was easy to make mistakes, but we haven’t,” said the Ferrari driver.
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