Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz ended Red Bull’s 15-race winning streak in an epic 2023 Singapore Grand Prix.
Sainz overcame a strategic race of pace management to hold off Lando Norris for second in a tense finish, as Lewis Hamilton executed a two-stop strategy to finish third after George Russell crashed out on the final lap.
Charles Leclerc meanwhile had ran second in the opening stint but got jumped during his pit stop on Lap 21, under the only Safety Car period of the race due to debris on track, but the Monegasque recovered to finish fourth ahead of Max Verstappen.
Pierre Gasly finished sixth ahead of Oscar Piastri who carved his way up the order from 17th to finish seventh ahead of Sergio Perez.
Liam Lawson claimed his first points in F1 with a ninth-placed finish ahead of Kevin Magnussen who rounded out the top ten, following Russell’s last-lap crash.
In the drivers’ standings, Verstappen extended his championship lead to 151 points over Perez as Hamilton moved up to third in the championship, marking the first time this season that the top three have had a change.
Five hours before the race was set to commence, Aston Martin announced that Lance Stroll had withdrawn from the Grand Prix due to feeling “still sore” from his crash in Qualifying, which meant that 19 drivers took the start.
At lights out, Sainz made a bright start to lead Russell who got jumped by Leclerc – who had gambled on a soft tyre start, which led Russell to squeeze Hamilton wide into Turn 1 and the latter cut the opening chicane to take third from Russell and Norris.
Mercedes ultimately told Hamilton to return the positions to Russell and Norris respectively, which he duly did by the end of Lap 4 as the top five engaged in a tactical strategic game of tyre management.
Magnussen meanwhile lost sixth to Alonso and Ocon whilst Verstappen displaced Lawson and Hulkenberg in the opening three laps to take ninth from 11th on grid, before he dispatched Magnussen into Turn 14 on Lap 6 as everyone settled into pace management mode.
Williams’ Logan Sargeant however brought the quietness to an abrupt end on Lap 19 as he locked up and crashed into the barriers at Turn 8, which caused the Safety Car to be deployed a lap later due to debris on track.
Several drivers aside from Verstappen, Perez and Bottas pitted for hard tyres as a consequence with Sainz rejoining in the lead, ahead of Verstappen, Russell and Perez fourth ahead of Norris as Leclerc got jumped by Russell and Norris during his stop.
Racing resumed at the end of Lap 22 as Verstappen and Perez tried to fight off Russell and Perez respectively, but were both passed at Turn 16 on the next lap, but Norris further demoted Verstappn on Lap 24 for third as Hamilton snatched fifth from Perez.
Perez then lost sixth to Leclerc a lap later despite moaning that Hamilton had overtaken him off track, amidst the fact that he had squeezed the Brit wide on the exit of Turn 6.
Verstappen soon got sucked in and passed by Hamilton and Leclerc by the end of Lap 28 on his worn hard tyres.
Up front, Russell reeled in Sainz but the Spaniard calmly controlled his pace to keep Russell at bay at around one second, as he attempted to back the Brit up into the clutches of Norris and Hamilton but the top four found themselves in a slipstream train.
Ocon however delivered a huge curveball with a gearbox failure at the start of Lap 43, which caused the Virtual Safety Car (VSC) to be deployed with everyone initially opting to stay out.
Russell and Hamilton however pitted a lap later in a bold move but the VSC ended later that lap, which swung the momentum towards Russell who cut a 13 second gap to third-placed Leclerc down to 0.736 seconds in eight laps with Hamilton in pursuit too.
Leclerc eventually conceded third to Russell at Turn 14 on Lap 53 with Hamilton following suit a lap later at Turn 7, whilst Norris reeled Sainz to around one second up front but the Spaniard kept his ex McLaren teammate at bay as he backed him into the Mercedes pair.
Sainz in the end clung on to take victory and deny F1 a first all-British F1 podium since 1968 US Grand Prix, as Norris secured his third podium of the season in second place.
Hamilton meanwhile snatched third after Russell crashed out at Turn 10, having clipped the wall on entry in a frantic final-lap showdown between the Mercedes duo.
Leclerc settled for fourth ahead of Verstappen who recovered to finish fifth ahead of Gasly, Piastri and Perez, as Lawson claimed his first points finish in ninth position whilst Magnussen rounded out the top ten.
F1 now heads to Suzuka, Japan for the 2023 Japanese Grand Prix across weekend of 22-24 September, where Verstappen and Red Bull can wrap up the drivers and constructors’ titles.
| Position | Driver | Team | Laps | Time |
| 1 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | 62 | 1h 46m 37.418 |
| 2 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 62 | + 0.812 |
| 3 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 62 | + 1.269 |
| 4 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 62 | + 21.177 |
| 5 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 62 | + 21.441 |
| 6 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | 62 | + 38.441 |
| 7 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 62 | + 41.479 |
| 8 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | 62 | + 59.534 |
| 9 | Liam Lawson | AlphaTauri | 62 | + 65.918 |
| 10 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 62 | + 72.116 |
| 11 | Alex Albon | Williams | 62 | + 73.417 |
| 12 | Guanyu Zhou | Alfa Romeo | 62 | + 83.649 |
| 13 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas | 62 | + 86.201 |
| 14 | Logan Sargeant | Willians | 62 | + 86.889 |
| 15 | Fernando Alonso | Williams | 62 | + 87.603 |
| RET | George Russell | Mercedes | 61 | Crash |
| RET | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo | 51 | Mechanical |
| RET | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | 42 | Gearbox |
| RET | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | 0 | Puncture |
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