Sainz wins thrilling Singapore GP and ends Red Bull win streak

Carlos Sainz has took a thrilling race victory at Singapore ahead of Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton.

Sainz had to hold off the charging Mercedes drivers, who pitted during a Virtual Safety Car in the closing stages for fresh tyres.

George Russell was chasing for the win in the closing stages when he crashed on the final lap, promoting teammate Hamilton to the podium.

Max Verstappen charged through the field after a poor strategy put him outside of the top ten, which was compounded by a late Virtual Safety Car for Esteban Ocon who stopped with a suspected gearbox issue.

The Dutchman climbed his way back up to P5, but it was a far cry from the usual dominance shown by Red Bull throughout the season.

Sergio Perez did not fare much better, with the Mexican dropping behind Verstappen and rounding out the top ten in P8.

Liam Lawson managed to achieve points in just his third F1 race in P9 in the AlphaTauri, while the last lap crash from Russell promoted Kevin Magnussen to P10.

Managing the pace

In the opening stages drivers were managing the pace on the Medium tyres in anticipation of a Safety Car, which has a high chance at Singapore.

Sainz was managing the pace up front and doing lap times similar to Zhou Guanyu in last, which meant everyone was doing mid 1:40s.

Max Verstappen made his way up to eight and had to manage his pace behind Esteban Ocon during this phase of the race, as Red Bull anticipated the pit stops for those ahead.

It turned out to be a disaster for Red Bull when Logan Sargeant understeered into the barrier and damaged his front wing, causing a Safety Car after just 22 laps of the race.

Ferrari pitted both drivers from the lead, with Sainz emerging in first while Leclerc lost positions to Russell and Norris due to being held in his pit box for traffic.

When they restarted Verstappen was second, but the extra life and managing in the early phases increased his tyre degradation. Against those on the fresher sets of Hard tyres, Verstappen was a sitting duck and lost positions to Russell, Norris and Leclerc.

The rare sight of a Red Bull losing positions continued as Perez also stropped back to P7 and had to defend from Alonso and Ocon midway through the race.