| 2022 Singapore Grand Prix | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Race 17 of 22 in the2022 Formula One World Championship
| |||||
 Layout of the Marina Bay Street Circuit | |||||
| Race details[1] | |||||
| Date | 2 October 2022 | ||||
| Official name | Formula 1 Singapore AirlinesSingapore Grand Prix 2022 | ||||
| Location | Marina Bay Street Circuit Marina Bay, Singapore | ||||
| Course | Temporarystreet circuit | ||||
| Course length | 5.063 km (3.146 miles) | ||||
| Distance | 59 laps, 298.580 km (185.529 miles) | ||||
| Scheduled distance | 61 laps, 308.706 km (191.821 miles) | ||||
| Weather | Partly cloudy in a wet and drying track | ||||
| Attendance | 302,000[2] | ||||
| Pole position | |||||
| Driver | Ferrari | ||||
| Time | 1:49.412 | ||||
| Fastest lap | |||||
| Driver |  George Russell | Mercedes | |||
| Time | 1:46.458 on lap 54 | ||||
| Podium | |||||
| First | Red Bull Racing-RBPT | ||||
| Second | Ferrari | ||||
| Third | Ferrari | ||||
Lap leaders | |||||
The2022 Singapore Grand Prix (officially known as theFormula 1 Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix 2022) was aFormula One motor race held on 2 October 2022 at theMarina Bay Street Circuit inMarina Bay,Singapore.
Although the regular 61 laps were scheduled, only 59 were completed due to the two hours time limit being reached. The start of the race was delayed by over an hour due to a thunderstorm and led to the race starting under wet conditions which gradually dried to allow slick tyres in the second half of the race. Despite a five-second time penalty, the race was won byRed Bull Racing driverSergio Pérez, with pole sitterCharles Leclerc finishing second and hisFerrari teammateCarlos Sainz Jr. finishing third.
The event was held across the weekend of the 30 September – 2 October. It was the seventeenth round of the2022 Formula One World Championship and the first time the event had been held since2019, with the2020 and2021 races cancelled due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.[3]Sebastian Vettel entered as the defending race winner.[4]
Max Verstappen led the Drivers' Championship by 116 points fromCharles Leclerc, second, and teammateSergio Pérez, third, by 125.Red Bull Racing team led the Constructors' Championship, leadingFerrari by 139 points andMercedes by 164 points.[5]
Verstappen could have secured his second World Drivers' Championship in a row. He had to outscore Leclerc by 22 points, Pérez by 13 andGeorge Russell by six. Verstappen could have won the title as follows:[6]
| Driver | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Max Verstappen |  Charles Leclerc |  Sergio Pérez | |
| Pos. | 1st with fastest lap | 8th or lower | 4th or lower |
| 1st | 9th or lower | 4th or lower without fastest lap / 5th or lower with fastest lap | |
The drivers and teams were the same as the season entry list with no additional stand-in drivers for the race.[7] The Grand Prix marked the 350th race start forFernando Alonso, breaking the record previously held byKimi Räikkönen.[8]
Tyre supplierPirelli brought the C3, C4, and C5 tyre compounds (designated hard, medium, and soft, respectively) for teams to use at the event.[9]
The first and the third activation point of theDRS were moved further back, being positioned 48 metres (157 ft) after turn 5 and 43 metres (141 ft) after the apex of turn 23, respectively.[10]
Qualifying began under wet conditions with the drivers starting on intermediate tyres, then switching to dry, soft compound tyres in Q3.Charles Leclerc took pole position, ahead ofSergio Pérez andLewis Hamilton. Championship LeaderMax Verstappen was in contention for pole position, but had to abandon his final lap after running short of fuel, leading to him qualifying eighth.[11]
Notes
The race was held on 2 October. It was due to start at 20:00local time (UTC+08:00), before being delayed to 21:05 due to thunderstorms.[15] The race started with all cars on the intermediate tyres.Sergio Pérez took the lead fromCharles Leclerc into turn 1, whileCarlos Sainz Jr. passedLewis Hamilton into third place.Max Verstappen dropped to twelfth place on lap 1, before recovering to ninth by lap 7 when asafety car was triggered following a collision betweenNicholas Latifi andZhou Guanyu, forcing both to retire. Following the restart, Verstappen advanced to seventh, being unable to overtakeFernando Alonso until Alonso's retirement on lap 21 due to an engine failure. Alonso's retirement caused avirtual safety car, leading toMercedes pittingGeorge Russell for dry medium tyres. An additional two virtual safety car periods followed, the first whenAlexander Albon struck the wall, resulting in the loss of the front wing and his retirement due to damage, and the second afterEsteban Ocon suffered an engine failure. On lap 33, after running in fourth since the start of the race, Hamilton went into the wall at turn 7. He was able to re-join the track just behindLando Norris, defending against Verstappen.[16][17]
As Russell's pace improved, setting fastest laps, the rest of the field switched to slick tyres (Pierre Gasly being the first on lap 34). Due to Hamilton's accident, he additionally had to change his front wing, dropping him to ninth.Yuki Tsunoda crashed out at turn 10 on lap 36, triggering a second safety car. Having stayed out of the pits for an additional lap, this allowed the twoMcLarens of Norris andDaniel Ricciardo to pit for slick tyres with Norris maintaining fourth position and Ricciardo moving up to sixth after starting 16th, behind Verstappen. Upon the restart, Pérez continued to lead from Leclerc and Sainz. In an attempt to overtake Norris into turn 7, Verstappen locked up, initially falling to eighth, then requiring an extra pitstop for fresh soft tyres. This briefly placed Verstappen in last until a minor collision between Russell andMick Schumacher, resulting in both pitting for soft tyres. After leading the majority of the race, Pérez was challenged by Leclerc for the lead. Despite Leclerc gainingDRS assistance and coming within two tenths of a second behind Pérez, he was unable to retake the lead of the race. After recovering to his starting position, Verstappen overtookSebastian Vettel on the final lap to take seventh. Pérez, having widened his lead to 7.595 seconds late in the race, claimed his fourth career victory and first in Singapore, ahead of Leclerc in second, and Sainz in third. Russell set the fastest lap on lap 54, but finished outside of the point scoring positions.[16][17]
Pérez was investigated for two separate breaches of article 55.10 of the sporting regulations - falling more than ten lengths behind the safety car, receiving a warning for the first offense, and a five-second time penalty for the second, due to repeating the offence after being warned not to.[18] This reduced his lead to 2.595 seconds, but did not affect his race win. Because both Alonso and Ocon retired during the race, while Norris and Ricciardo finished fourth and fifth, this promoted McLaren to fourth in the Constructors' Championship ahead ofAlpine. Additionally, Vettel's finish in eighth and his teammateLance Stroll finishing in sixth, promotedAston Martin to seventh in the Constructors' Championship.[16] Latifi received a five-place grid penalty for theJapanese Grand Prix, for causing the collision with Zhou on lap seven.[19]
Notes
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Previous race: 2022 Italian Grand Prix | FIA Formula One World Championship 2022 season | Next race: 2022 Japanese Grand Prix |
| Previous race: 2019 Singapore Grand Prix | Singapore Grand Prix | Next race: 2023 Singapore Grand Prix |
