FP1-FP2-FP3
First analysis of the weekend were indicating the different aero setup between the teams of the field:
Teams such as Ferrari and Alpine opted to have a more downforce rather than a maximum speed to benefit tyre wear.
Red Bull and Mercedes were found there in the mid-back field.
The Williams opted by a low downforce setup to reach the greatest speed, but with poor performance on turns. This is matched with the time on maximum throttle, where they really struggled due to the lack of grip.
Not too much to say about FP3, where the start of the session was delayed due to the track status after the intense rain the hours before.
Everybody tested the intermediate and the wet tyres to try to get the best sensation prior to the qualifying.
Qualifying
The Singapore's qualifying was one of the best of the last races, with so much unknowns through it.
Verstappen's problem
The session was exceptional due to the Max's qualifying result after being called to enter the pits when he was about to get the pole. The reason after that, if you still do not know, was that he did not have enough fuel for the scrutineering. The FIA takes one liter from the remaining fuel from the car after the session. They analyse it to check the fuel composition. In case that there is no fuel left, the driver is disqualified from the session and must start the race from the pit lane.
However, he potentially could achieve that pole position twice: the lap that he was told to abort, which was actually as good as LEC's, and the last lap, which had a delta of -0.9 respect LEC.
The following chart represents the best lap possible, compared to the driver ideal lap and driver's qualifying lap.
Everybody except for LEC, VER, VET and STR were on their ideal lap.
Max's ideal lap is 2.1s faster than his qualifying lap.
Massive gaps between the Williams and the rest of the field.
LEC best S3 whereas HAM best S2. Max set the S1 record on his aborted lap.
The LEC's time is 1 second away from the best ideal lap of the session. This shows how difficult is SIN and how difficult is to drive in damp conditions!
The time at maximum throttle could be used to estimate how was the track grip compared to FP2:
The Top 10 could have obtained more grip due to the track was being slowly dried.
The slippery track and the low downforce setup from the Williams led them to struggle the most.
LEC achieved 40% of the time with full throttle in Q where he was able to reach the 45% in FP2 in dry conditions.
Leclerc's pole, ultra marginal!
Charles Leclerc claimed his ninth Pole Position of the 2022 season. However, the Top 3 were in 50 thousandths of a second.
Comparing the telemetry between LEC and PER, he was able to recover from a horrible S1 (almost a +0.5s behind PER) to comeback with the best time.
PER got all his advantage at the exit of T3 under full traction.
LEC tried to get some time at braking, but PER got the advantage back on corner exit.
LEC extracted his best on low speed turns of S3 to claim his pole!
Ricciardo and Ocon stay in Q1
One of the surprises of the Q1 was the elimination of Ricciardo and Ocon. The elimination was a combination of great track improvement (the track was being dried) and the yellow flag at S2/S3.
This is a screenshot from the track status at the end of Q1:
STR caused a yellow flag at turn 14 (right where the S2 finishes), so RIC and OCO that were right after him, had to leave the throttle to respect the flags.
Race
Sergio "Checo" Perez is the official winner of the Singapore Gran Prix after one hour of having seen the checkered flag, followed by the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.
Checo's SC Infringement
The car 11 was being investigated for the infringement of the article 55.10 which says that the leading car must keep a maximum distance of 10 cars behind the safety car. He received a warning during the first SC period, but he failed again in the second one. The stewards imposed 5s penalty at his race elapsed time, but he still managed to win the race but 2s.
Perez alleged that he was not able to follow the SC due to the track conditions.
Cumulative Delta Times
To understand the race, the cumulative delta times are used. From this it can be said that:
PER's and LEC's race paces were from another planet, they managed to leave SAI back every SC period
SAI had not got the pace in any part of the race to fight beyond the third place.
HAM got stuck behind SAI most part of the race, being impossible for him to clear him until he went straight on lap 33. After that, he went to boxes, but the time was already lost.
HAM suffered a lot with the medium tyres and got stuck after VET.
TSU was leading the midfield train, losing distance to VET and GAS. STR, RIC, RUS and OCO got stuck on this train also!
Since RUS was stuck in this midfield train, Mercedes decided to stop him in the VSC period to try the dry tyres, but the track was not dry enough and he lost a lot of time in there
NOR stopped the VER's comeback after a horrible start by holding him up for 20 laps.
After the SC restart, VER lost the braking stability at T7, creating large flat spots in his new set of dry tyres. Then, he entered the pit again to put a new set of soft tyres to try to reach TOP 5.
However, his astonishing race pace in clean air with the soft tyres got killed by HAM and VET who were fighting for the seventh position.
All the teams had an eye on the RUS's pace with the dry tyres, so the pit stop dance started when he was picking up pace.
LEC stopped one lap before PER but he cleared all his way up to keep the first position.
A fortunate RIC with his strategy to stop under SC period let him climb up to 5th position!
In this case, the overcut to clear GAS worked really well for both Aston Martin reaching the sixth and seventh position after the SC. Good points for them!
LEC followed PER most of the dry stint, but the medium tyres started to degrade falling up to 7s behind PER.
BOT and RIC were the only drivers to try the soft tyres for the dry stint. While RIC managed to keep STR away without any sign of degradation (however, far from NOR's pace), BOT really struggled on the last laps with the soft's degradation, being almost caught by MAG.
Race Pace Analysis - WET Stint
ZHO and LAT far off pace (Early DNF)
PER and LEC strong race pace in wet
VET and GAS, better race pace than their team mates caught in traffic.
VER, RUS and OCO not being able to give their maximum due to traffic.
SAI could not match his teammate's pace
Great race pace from NOR
Race Pace Analysis - DRY Stint
Massive race pace from PER.
SAI the last in race pace of the big 4.
HAM stuck after both AMR.
Solid pace from AMR!
RIC 1.5s off pace from NOR trying to manage his tyres.
RUS's dry race pace biased due to early pit stop for dry tyres.
Tyre Strategy
Early MAG's pit stop to inter due to black and orange dot flag after the contact with VER
RUS's pit stop 10 laps earlier than the ideal pit stop window. Second pit stop for fresh tyres to take advantage of the SC period. Third pit stop after the puncture caused by the incident with MSC. Last pit stop to get the fastest lap. A weekend to forget for the British!
VER pitted to put soft after the incident with NOR.
TSU accident due to cold tyres/low grip conditions!
Definetely, the best option for the dry tyre was the medium!
All the drivers started with inters, the race was too much delayed...
And that's all for today!
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