It wasn’t supposed to be this dark yet. The sun hadn’t yet set over Singapore, yet gloom was engulfing the Marina Bay circuit.
Rain. It had fallen hard between FP3 and qualifying. Now it was coming down even harder, with just 65 minutes before the 8pm scheduled race start time. Formula 1 drivers, team staff, paddock guests, officials and media alike darted for cover as nearby skyscrapers disappeared from view. Soon the inevitable followed, and the start process was delayed.
When the race eventually did get going 65 minutes later than billed, it would be won by Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, who shared the front row with pole-winner Charles Leclerc. Those two stole the show in the headline battle, while the fighting fortunes of two world champions created fascinating subplots.
THE LEAD BATTLE
Leclerc had sat astride his Ferrari F1-75 after finally arriving on pole position following the rain delay. But with the grid still slippery enough to require the whole field to start on intermediate tyres, he wisely spent a moment putting rubber overshoes onto his race boots for the pre-start ceremonies.
Back in the cockpit, Leclerc reflected on how “track position in Singapore is really, really important”. Indeed, both Ferrari and Red Bull had been prepared to sacrifice race preparation time in FP2 to nail qualifying set-ups even before the two squads had various disruptions on Friday night. Passing was expected to be tricky even with the new ground-effects cars – a factor that increased in the wet given the challenge of braking off the racing line.
When the lights went out, Leclerc and Perez reacted in unison, shooting off the line together. But in the second phase, Leclerc “had a little bit of wheelspin”. The Red Bull then rapidly powered alongside and Perez swept into Turn 1 to seal the race lead, which he would never lose thereafter. “The bad start put us
