Sergio Pérez took his fourth career win after a stellar performance at the Singapore Grand Prix. Having started from second place alongside Charles Leclerc, Pérez came off the line quickly and took the lead, which he held onto with a solid grasp until the checkered flag.
After a pair of races outside the podium positions, Pérez was excited to take a victory representative of the work he has put in behind the scenes.
“I am so happy to get this victory for me and my Team, it means a lot to me. I haven’t been on the podium the last couple of races but I was always working under the radar and making big noises behind the scenes, so I am super proud of the performance today.”
Pérez said that the conditions made racing in Singapore particularly challenging, with the humid heat and consistently damp track surface adding to the difficulty of the street circuit. He was, however, able to put together a dominant showing, having taken the lead from the first turn and resisted pressure from Leclerc behind in the closing stages.
“Mentally it was tough and you had to stay alert for the whole race. It was super tricky in the conditions out there today and people underestimate how difficult it is to drive in those, going through the final sector was so hard.”
Pérez was given a five second penalty post-race for failing to keep a distance of ten car lengths between him and the safety car on two occasions during the race. He received an express warning on his first breach of the rule, which led race control to apply the penalty for his second offense.
Pérez said that these incidents were a result of “miscommunication”, as he couldn’t adhere to the safety car’s pacing with the conditions at hand. When he was notified about his investigation, he strove to widen the gap to Leclerc in second in case of penalty. Ultimately, Leclerc finished over seven seconds behind, which meant that Pérez could keep the win.
“There was a bit of miscommunication with the safety car I think, he was going really fast in places where I couldn’t keep up with him and then slowing where I could go fast. We were driving on slicks in the wet trying to keep the temperature and that is difficult.
“When they told me I was under investigation I just pushed like qualifying for 15 laps to get as big a gap as possible to Charles.”
“From my side it was a frustrating weekend” – Max Verstappen
Team-mate Max Verstappen faced difficulties in Singapore, finishing in seventh place after a lowly eighth place start. Having dropped to twelfth after a slow start, he had to work his way back through the field amid several safety car periods.
“First of all, well done to Checo today, he put in a great performance. From my side it was a frustrating weekend. The race didn’t start off well, I had an anti-stall so I lost a lot of positions at the start.”
A large lockup when he was in pursuit of Lando Norris later in the race hindered him further, causing him to take an extra pitstop and join near the back of the field. He was still able to come away with a handful of points after a race of tough, wet conditions in which it was hard to overtake off-line.
“From there onwards, I got myself back into a reasonable position after switching to slicks, but when I wanted to go for the move on Lando I braked and I hit a big bump and bottomed out and locked up. I boxed for new tyres as I had a massive flat spot so I had to start all over again from the back.”
“It’s tough to pass people on this track, especially when we’ve all got our tyres up to temperature, so I was stuck for a while.”
Verstappen now looks ahead to the Japanese Grand Prix, where he will be looking to collect the points necessary to secure the Driver’s Championship.
“It was good to get a few points but that’s not what we are here for, time to focus on to Japan.”
