Following an extremely heavy pre-race downpour, which forced the start to be postponed by more than an hour, the Singapore Grand Prix began on a very wet track.
In the nervy race which followed, teams waited and watched each other to see who would blink first and commit to a switch from intermediate to slick tyres.All 20 drivers took the start on the lightly-treaded intermediate rubber. At least one of them, Lewis Hamilton, told his team he wasn’t happy with the selection. As he can’t possibly have wanted to start the race on slicks – the track was far too wet – Hamilton must have been hankering after a switch to wet weather tyres.
It’s impossible to know for sure whether that was a missed opportunity for Mercedes. Could Hamilton have pulled off the tactics used by some drivers in Monaco this year, running on full wets long enough before switching directly to slicks as the track dried? Or at least used the superior initial grip to pass Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez at the start, then draw far enough ahead to switch to intermediates and bank the lead?
Both scenarios have obvious drawbacks. It’s hard to imagine that on the hotter and more abrasive Singapore track the wets would have lasted long enough for drivers to go directly to slicks. And the theory of passing Leclerc and Perez is all well and good, but Hamilton would also have needed to pull far enough away from them to make a pit stop and emerge ahead – not easy given the early Safety Car disruption which tightened the pack up.
But for a team which is supposedly going all-out for wins at this stage in the season, it’s disappointing they played it safe. Perhaps if both cars had been at the front they would have been more inclined to gamble.
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The next lap Russell produced the quickest tour of the race and that triggered mass pit stops. Among the quickest to react was AlphaTauri, but they regretted the decision when Yuki Tsunoda crashed on his first lap on medium rubber.
With the Safety Car out again, the remaining drivers were able to pit, and those who’d been slower to pit were rewarded. First among these was McLaren, as Daniel Ricciardo was promoted into the top five. Lando Norris was already running fourth, and when Max Verstappen went off trying to pass him, it opened the door for the orange (and, temporarily, pink) cars to bag a valuable double top-five finish.
It was a procession ahead of them, however. Aside from the Ferrari drivers’ pit stops, the top three ran in the same order all night, Sergio Perez never headed on his way to his fourth career win.
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2022 Singapore Grand Prix lap chart
The positions of each driver on every lap. Click name to highlight, right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:
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2022 Singapore Grand Prix race chart
The gaps between each driver on every lap compared to the leader’s average lap time. Very large gaps omitted. Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:
2022 Singapore Grand Prix lap times
All the lap times by the drivers (in seconds, very slow laps excluded). Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and toggle drivers using the control below:
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2022 Singapore Grand Prix fastest laps
Each driver’s fastest lap:
Rank | No. | Driver | Car | Lap time | Gap | Average speed (kph) | Lap no. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 63 | George Russell | Mercedes | 1’46.458 | 171.28 | 54 | |
2 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | 1’48.165 | 1.707 | 168.58 | 57 |
3 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Ferrari | 1’48.414 | 1.956 | 168.19 | 59 |
4 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1’48.753 | 2.295 | 167.66 | 54 |
5 | 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1’49.142 | 2.684 | 167.07 | 52 |
6 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’49.212 | 2.754 | 166.96 | 56 |
7 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin-Mercedes | 1’50.283 | 3.825 | 165.34 | 58 |
8 | 47 | Mick Schumacher | Haas-Ferrari | 1’50.290 | 3.832 | 165.33 | 58 |
9 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri-Red Bull | 1’50.569 | 4.111 | 164.91 | 56 |
10 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’50.622 | 4.164 | 164.83 | 58 |
11 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin-Mercedes | 1’50.669 | 4.211 | 164.76 | 58 |
12 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’51.006 | 4.548 | 164.26 | 57 |
13 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 1’51.864 | 5.406 | 163 | 52 |
14 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas-Ferrari | 1’52.067 | 5.609 | 162.71 | 59 |
15 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri-Red Bull | 1’58.716 | 12.258 | 153.59 | 32 |
16 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine-Renault | 2’00.463 | 14.005 | 151.37 | 19 |
17 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine-Renault | 2’01.105 | 14.647 | 150.56 | 24 |
18 | 23 | Alexander Albon | Williams-Mercedes | 2’02.121 | 15.663 | 149.31 | 24 |
19 | 24 | Zhou Guanyu | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 2’05.556 | 19.098 | 145.23 | 5 |
20 | 6 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams-Mercedes | 2’05.585 | 19.127 | 145.19 | 5 |
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2022 Singapore Grand Prix tyre strategies
2022 Singapore Grand Prix pit stop times
How long each driver’s pit stops took:
Rank | No. | Driver | Team | Complete stop time (s) | Gap to best (s) | Stop no. | Lap no. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 29.407 | 1 | 35 | |
2 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | 29.55 | 0.143 | 1 | 35 |
3 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | 29.704 | 0.297 | 1 | 34 |
4 | 63 | George Russell | Mercedes | 29.713 | 0.306 | 2 | 35 |
5 | 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 29.775 | 0.368 | 2 | 40 |
6 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 29.863 | 0.456 | 1 | 35 |
7 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | 29.867 | 0.46 | 1 | 33 |
8 | 63 | George Russell | Mercedes | 29.893 | 0.486 | 4 | 51 |
9 | 63 | George Russell | Mercedes | 30.378 | 0.971 | 1 | 21 |
10 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 30.528 | 1.121 | 1 | 36 |
11 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Ferrari | 30.603 | 1.196 | 1 | 35 |
12 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren | 30.946 | 1.539 | 1 | 36 |
13 | 47 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | 31.201 | 1.794 | 1 | 34 |
14 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | 31.293 | 1.886 | 1 | 33 |
15 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 32.058 | 2.651 | 1 | 34 |
16 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo | 32.167 | 2.76 | 1 | 33 |
17 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 32.603 | 3.196 | 2 | 33 |
18 | 63 | George Russell | Mercedes | 33.211 | 3.804 | 3 | 41 |
19 | 47 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | 34.722 | 5.315 | 2 | 41 |
20 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 39.247 | 9.84 | 1 | 7 |
21 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 41.019 | 11.612 | 1 | 34 |
2022 Singapore Grand Prix
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hyoko
2nd October 2022, 23:54
Why do we have to wait for the race start until the intermediates are safe? What’s the point of having full wet tyres then?
NS Biker (@rekibsn)
3rd October 2022, 3:09
Michael Schumacher figured out a long time ago that if it is wet enough to require full wets, likely they won’t start the race. 90% of the time, this is the case.
Singapore is like Malaysia that it is so hot and humid that the track will not dry out as fast as it would at a typical European track. End result is it takes longer to evolve from Full-Wets Don’t Start, to intermediates, lets go.
Questioning the idea of “why have full-wets” is probably legit.
They do get used occasionally if it stars to rain hard once the race is underway.
N
3rd October 2022, 10:31
Didnt they confirm during the broadcast that Hamilton was not talking about full wets, but used inters vs new.
jff
3rd October 2022, 11:00
That’s what I assumed.
Hamilton is normally quite comfortable on slippery tracks; I’d never expect him to be the first to ask for full wets.