For the first
time in its history, the Singapore Grand Prix was a wet race, with the top
six starting on the intermediate tyre and a mixture of wets and
intermediates further down the grid.
There were two safety car periods in the first half of the race, with the
track still wet, which were used by some drivers to change from wet to
intermediate tyres, while Daniel Ricciardo, who had started on
intermediates, opted to change to a fresh set of intermediates. The Red Bull
driver finished the grand prix second, behind the Mercedes of race winner
Lewis Hamilton
The track eventually dried out after the restart, with the first drivers to
change onto slicks being Haas’s Kevin Magnussen and Williams’s Felipe Massa
on lap 24. Once the crossover point had been reached, all the frontrunners
switched to slicks with most opting for the ultrasoft, although Toro Rosso’s
Carlos Sainz went for supersofts – claiming his best career result of fourth
at the finish. Jolyon Palmer (Renault) and Stoffel Vandoorne (McLaren) also
took their best results in Formula 1, while Hamilton set a new race lap
record of 1m45.008s on the ultrasoft: more than two seconds faster than last
year’s fastest race lap.
MARIO ISOLA - HEAD OF CAR RACING
“The start of the race was unknown territory for everyone, with no wet
weather running during the weekend up to now. This tactical uncertainty was
compounded by the first of three safety cars, immediately after the start,
meaning that strategy was mainly a question of reacting to changing
circumstances on track. Intermediates were generally the best choice for the
conditions during the first half of the race, although the full wets also
performed strongly on a track that was only drying out very slowly. Once the
surface was dry, track evolution happened quickly, with everyone apart from
Carlos Sainz – who drove a fantastic race – opting to finish the grand prix
on the ultrasoft.”
TRUTHOMETER
Lewis Hamilton won the race using a one-stop strategy as predicted, but
nobody
expected that it would be from intermediate to ultrasoft, on lap 29.
Ricciardo, behind him, chose to take on a fresh set of intermediates under
the safety car, but also used a combination of intermediate and ultrasoft.
The highest-placed driver to start the race on the full wet was Force
India’s Sergio Perez, who finished fifth. |