Singapore 2023, a Beautiful Night for Ferrari and a Night to Forget for Red Bull

The 2023 Singapore GP was held this weekend with quite a surprise outcome. Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz. Jr takes his second career win under the Singapore lights by leading every lap of the race, and a strategic masterclass. This win by the Spanish driver marked the end of Red Bull's dominance over the 2023 season after both drivers were unable to reach the Q3 for the first time since Russia 2018.

Max Verstappen's 10-wins streak and 100% podium record have also ended with the Dutch driver only managing to recover to 5th position from starting 11th after getting outqualified by rookie Liam Lawson, driving for Scuderia Alphatauri. While his teammate Sergio Perez only managed to qualify 13th.

The race started strong for Ferrari after Charles Leclerc managed to take 2nd place over George Russell, a 1-2 for Ferrari in a race for the first time in 2023. However, a slow double-stack pit stop during the safety car period cost him some places and a possible podium finish.

Mercedes seeks a strategic advantage with George Russel having a set of medium tires spared for a double pit-stop. When Esteban Ocon's Alpine stopped due to a suspected gearbox issue, the virtual safety car was called, giving a chance for Mercedes to put on the medium tires at the 44th lap, losing track position by dropping to 4th and 5th position for Russel and Hamilton respectively, but manage to push on faster around 2 seconds a lap, having a much faster, fresher tires than their competitors in front.

Like the Mercedes, Verstappen also showed a good pace during his medium stint. Despite having the 2nd place spot after the safety car period, his hard compound tires won't hold up anymore, losing place after place, and his race strategy was ruined by Ocon's late virtual safety car call, adding more misery to his already bad weekend.

It was a tight race, one if not the most entertaining race we have this season, having a 4-way battle for the win in the last five laps, with Sainz, Norris, Russell, and Hamilton all having a great chance to be the first non-Red Bull driver to win a Grand Prix this season.

Knowing how much faster both the Mercedeses are, Carlos Sainz had a strategic masterclass during this last stage of the race by taking the risk of keeping his distance no more than 1 second in front of the McLaren, helping Norris by giving him DRS and making him act as his shield. As he said on the radio during the race, "Yeah, It's on purpose" to his race engineer.

It was not until the final lap when George Russel's Mercedes clipped his front-right tire to the wall at the entry of turn 10, sending him to the run-off area before dumping his Mercedes into the tecpro barriers, solidifying Carlos Sainz's second career victory and ended Ferrari's 434-day victory drought since their last one at the 2022 Austrian GP.

Lando Norris successfully defended his position and finished 2nd, while the third podium spot was taken by Lewis Hamilton. Verstappen managed to recover 20 seconds in the last 6 laps, finishing 5th, just 0.264 seconds off 4th place finisher, Charles Leclerc. It was a beautiful night for Ferrari, and a night to forget for Red Bull.