Sergio Perez led the majority of the Singapore Grand Prix to take the chequered flag first, but is under investigation for a Safety Car infringement.
In a race disrupted with multiple Safety Car and Virtual Safety Car appearances, Perez held off Charles Leclerc throughout the race to take the chequered flag first. However, his win remains unofficial as he will be investigated for breaching Safety Car procedure by dropping too far back prior to a restart.
Leclerc finished 7.5 seconds behind Perez, with Carlos Sainz Jnr fourth. Championship leader Max Verstappen finished seventh after starting eighth.
The start of the race was delayed by over an hour due to a torrential downpour that soaked the Singapore circuit prior to the original 8pm start time. After the delay the formation lap began an hour later than scheduled with no more rain falling onto the circuit and all 20 cars on intermediate tyres.
When the lights went out, Perez jumped Leclerc to take the lead of the race, while Sainz moved ahead of Lewis Hamilton to take third position. Having started eighth, Verstappen dropped down to 12th position by the end of the first lap as his team mate pulled out a lead of a second over Leclerc.
Leclerc kept the gap to the leader under two seconds through the early laps as the pair pulled slowly away from Sainz in third. Zhou Guanyu became the first retirement of the race on lap seven when he was hit by Nicholas Latifi while trying to pass the Williams around the outside of turn five, breaking his suspension and forcing him to pull off the circuit. The Williams driver was later penalised for the collision.
The Safety Car was deployed for a handful of laps to allow for Zhou’s Alfa Romeo to be cleared. None of the drivers chose to pit under the Safety Car and the race restarted at the beginning of lap 11 with Perez still leading ahead of Leclerc and Sainz. Verstappen, who had made his way up to eighth before the Safety Car, quickly relieved Pierre Gasly of seventh at turn 13.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Again, Perez and Leclerc pulled away from Sainz. The track dried out very slowly, with drivers nursing their increasingly worn intermediate tyres to try and run as far into the race as possible before switching to dry tyres.
On lap 21, Fernando Alonso suddenly pulled off the track into turn ten, his Alpine slowing on the short straight. As Alonso retired, the Virtual Safety Car was deployed.
Under the…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at RaceFans…