F1: Driver rankings after the Singapore GP
We classify the most outstanding drivers left by the 18th date of the Formula 1 season
George Russell surprisingly dominates the weekend F1 in Singaporeon the date on which McLaren won his tenth Constructors’ championship, defending his title for the first time since 1991 and in which we may have possibly witnessed the end of the “Papaya Rules”.
To put together this driver classifier, we took everything done over the weekend, prioritizing the qualifying sessions and the race. We also consider the car each driver competes with, as well as the competitor’s years of experience.
1.George Russell
Brilliant weekend for the Briton from Mercedes who scores a beating against Verstappen at a time when his negotiations with Mercedes seem to be stalled even with the confirmation that the Dutchman will remain at Red Bull, a direct message to Toto Wolff that when he has the tool, George can approach Max’s level.
2. Carlos Sainz
After the podium in Baku, the disqualification of the Qualy for both Williams seemed to have marked the return of bad luck for Carlos Sainz but, on the circuit where almost no one overtakes, the Madrid native managed to get 50 laps off his medium tires in the first stint to get into the points position. By the end of the race, Carlos had moved up 8 positions, giving Williams the first point in Singapore since 2017 (Lance Stroll).
3. Max Verstappen
Although he finished ahead of both McLarens for the third consecutive race, Verstappen needed to win to be able to overcome good points from the McLaren duo. The champion remained solid in second position, defending himself from the attacks of Lando Norris but, he made a mistake by starting with soft tires used in the first part of the race, a bet that did not work and now to win the championship he will need a magic wand.
4. Oliver Bearman
Bearman continues to show glimpses of his talent, he got into Q3 for the first time since the Japanese GP, this time ahead of his teammate Esteban Ocon and kept a Haas that did not seem to have much pace within the top 10, a solid effort from the Briton on his first visit to Marina Bay.
5. Fernando Alonso
Alonso led free practice 1, somehow he got into Q3 after the drop in the performance of his Aston Martin on Saturday and despite a bad stop, he managed to overtake several drivers to finish two positions ahead of where he started, the penalty for Hamilton gives him an extra step, finishing P7.
6. Kimi Antonelli
The Italian started the weekend with good results in free practice but apparently the pressure got the better of the young Kimi and he qualified in P4 with Antonelli admitting to the press that he over drove the W15 and that he felt he left time on the table, but in the race he remained in pursuit of Charles Leclerc, managing to overtake him with a tremendous move in the last part that earned him P5.
7. Lando Norris
Lando had a bad qualifying after being one of the pole candidates, but he was able to pass Kimi at the start and then his teammate and rival, Oscar Piastri, to take the last place on the podium. The complicated thing is that on the first lap, Norris collided with Piastri at the entrance to turn 4, sending him into the wall and despite having damaged his front wing, at times he looked like a real threat. for Verstappen.
8. Oscar Piastri
Piastri did not feel comfortable during the weekend, but at least he qualified ahead of Norris, which was of little use in light of the Briton’s move. From there, Piastri did not see his teammate’s MCL39 again until the end of the race. We do not know if he suffered significant damage in the incident against Norris, but we do know that with yesterday’s result, Oscar limited Mercedes’ progress.
9. Lewis Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton looked set to get his first podium or pole with Ferrari when he set the best time in Q1, but Ferrari being Ferrari, they misinterpreted the state of the track and sent the 7-time champion back to the track with used soft tires for his final lap attempt. Ferrari even when it doesn’t want to does it wrong.
10. Charles Leclerc
Leclerc makes the top 10 for the simple fact that from lap 3 his team asked him to do LICO (Lift and coast) which is simply to stop accelerating instead of braking to avoid overheating the brakes. This order caused the Monegasque to lose around half a second per lap compared to the drivers at the top and in a comparison with Bearman’s pace you can see how Leclerc turned on average two seconds per lap slower than a Haas, even so, Charles took the P6.
