The greatest drive of his career: Perez's Singapore GP masterclass analysed

F1

Whilst others laboured, locked up and crashed, Sergio Perez kept his cool out front – Tony Dodgins looks back on a consummate performance

B-Red-Bull-F1-driver-Sergio-Perez-at-the-2022-Singapore-GP-9

Perez was imperious in Singapore

It has become almost second nature to wax lyrical about the exploits of Max Verstappen in 2022, but Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez has now produced two of the stand-out moments of the season.

The first was that pole position in Jeddah – the one and only of his F1 career. The Monaco win was impressive too, but assisted by some cack-handedness on the Ferrari pit wall. Singapore last Sunday though, was a sublime performance from first to last under intense pressure.

Singapore is the toughest mental and physical test of a grand prix driver all season. Time-wise it’s the longest race of year, in high humidity with barely a moment’s let-up. It’s talked about each and every year, but even more so this time around, when Alex Albon decided to race at Marina Bay despite being on a ventilator not two weeks before!

What really struck a chord though, was Carlos Sainz’s assessment pre-race: “The vibrations make it hard to keep the eyeline,” he explained, “and to get the last two or three tenths of performance is really draining. If you survive Singapore then you are fit for anything else in F1.” Even stiffer 2022 cars on bigger tyres did not make it any easier!

Red-Bull-F1-driver-Sergio-Perez-d-at-the-2022-SIngapore-GP

Perez calmly heads field after converting second into pole

DPPI

Perez was cast in the lead role when it all went pear-shaped for Verstappen in qualifying. Max was apoplectic when he had to back out of what was going to be the pole position lap because Red Bull realised it was touch and go whether he had sufficient fuel to provide the requisite one-litre post-session sample. With a drying track improving all the time, it meant that Max’s earlier time was only good enough for eighth on the grid.

Team principal Christian Horner’s view was that finishing the lap was not a risk worth taking. The penalty for an inability to provide the sample is exclusion and a back of the grid start. Verstappen has made a recent habit of winning grands prix from unlikely starting positions – 10th in Hungary and 14th at Spa – but to win from the back in Singapore was a bridge too far, even for him. Eighth was bad enough, as Max well knew.

It opened the door for a ninth ’22 pole for Charles Leclerc, who pipped Perez by two-hundredths and was most people’s pre-race favourite. But the start proved crucial. The initial reaction times of Leclerc and Perez were identical. Both started in second gear on the wet surface but you could hear the wheelspin as Leclerc hit a damper patch in the second phase. It meant that the Red Bull was through Turn 1 in the lead.

Related article

Given Sainz’s renowned prowess in mixed conditions, a strength all the way through his career, it was something of a surprise when Perez / Leclerc were able to drop him fairly comfortably, Lewis Hamilton frustrated at being stuck behind the second Ferrari.

In the cooldown room post-race, both Perez and Leclerc were smiling at just how hard they’d been pushing early in the race on the intermediate tyre, at the same time as trying to ensure they didn’t destroy it, given how slow Singapore is to dry out at night.

It was no different at the end on the medium compound slick Pirellis as a single dry line started to emerge, except in the tricky final sector. Off it, the surface was treacherous, as both Hamilton and Verstappen discovered. Lewis went straight on and had to extract himself from the tyre barrier, and Max had a spectacular lock-up when, with low pressures at a safety car restart, he bottomed out over a bump and lost time down an escape road trying to pass Lando Norris.

Red-Bull-F1-driver-f-Sergio-Perez-at-the-2022-Singapore-GP-2

Perez led every single lap in Singapore

Red Bull

Two safety car restarts had left Perez open to sanction when he dropped more than the regulation 10 car lengths behind the safety car. It brought unwanted pressure at the end, with the team advising him to “disappear” because he could be liable to a post-race penalty. Disappear up the road from the pole position Ferrari that was… Amazingly, he managed to do it.

In the conditions, the race was always going to run to the two-hour maximum and you couldn’t help but recall Sainz’s comments about how draining it is to get those last two or three tenths. With about 20 minutes remaining, Leclerc was right on the Red Bull’s rear wing. Twice, Sergio locked up but rescued himself and, in those moments, you’d have placed your money on the Ferrari.

But, as Leclerc said, “I wasn’t close quite close enough unfortunately, whenever he had those lock-ups.”

After that, against all odds seemingly, Perez did indeed manage to drop Leclerc, crossing the line 7.5sec clear of the Ferrari, which proved crucial.

As they talked post-race, Perez poured bottle after bottle of cold water over his head and Leclerc looked pretty spent, too. As Sergio talked about degrading intermediates in the opening stint, Leclerc joked – but maybe only half-joked – about degrading himself at the end! Ferrari had told him that Sergio was liable to a penalty and to stay within 5s. But he couldn’t. It was against expectations because Perez had seldom enjoyed greater than a 1.5sec margin over the Ferrari all afternoon. But Leclerc, too, had fought a Ferrari that looked as if it could pitch him into the wall at any moment, and it was a truly great demonstration by both men, such was their superiority.

“As soon as my engineer told me ‘Okay, Checo is 5.1sec in front, then it was just all about bringing the car to the end,” Leclerc added. “The conditions were really, really tricky and mistakes can be very easy to make. I just brought the car home.”

Red-Bull-F1-driver-Sergio-Perez-c-at-the-2022-Singapore-GP-2

All drivers found Singapore a huge physical challenge

DPPI

Was the 24-year-old suffering more than the 32-year-old?

“I was quite surprised because when I lost the DRS I think it was exactly at the time when Checo’s medium tyres started to work properly and, unfortunately, I then lost it a little bit,” Leclerc explained. “But before that everything was really on the limit. With the dirty air in conditions like that, the slightest mistake you pay big time. I did few mistakes, I was just trying to be as close as possible because I basically had to try to make the overtake on the straight.

Related article

“I couldn’t really go into the braking zone and brake later because I didn’t really know how the track was on the inside. I didn’t want to take that risk. I had one lap where I was really close and I actually thought about it, but it wasn’t worth it. I was just waiting for the right opportunity. Unfortunately, it didn’t arrive.”

That it didn’t was down to the greatest drive of Sergio Perez’s career, something both he and his team boss agreed on.

“Without a doubt it was,” Christian Horner said. “The way he looked after the intermediates, the safety car restarts, the crossover onto slicks and his pace at the end. Charles threw everything at him and he was world class. It even surpasses Monaco. Under massive pressure. I’m really proud of him. A super job.”

Verstappen showed searing pace on the rare occasions he found himself in free air, but Perez and Leclerc traded fastest laps with him, even in the closing laps when Max was on softs and Sergio on mediums.

There was then a tense hour or two as Perez was summoned to the stewards to explain why he’d dropped more than 10 car lengths behind Bernd Maylander’s safety car. Twice. He was potentially looking at a 5sec penalty for each offence….

Red-Bull-F1-driver-Sergio-Perez-e-at-the-2022-Singapore-GP-9

Soaking up the pressure

Grand Prix Photo

In mitigation, Perez explained that in those conditions he did not want to re-start with cold tyres and brakes and that while there were places where the safety car was much slower than the race cars, that didn’t apply to the final sector, which hadn’t dried.

It was great to see some common sense applied. While the stewards weren’t fully satisfied with the explanation, they did cut him some slack. Perez got a reprimand for the first offence and a 5sec penalty plus two penalty points for the second. His winning margin ended up at 2.5sec. His closing lap efforts, right on the limit, had been decisive.

“In the car I didn’t feel it, but when I got out I certainly did…” said the exhausted-looking Mexican. If ever a driver deserved a slice of good fortune it was Sergio in Singapore. A truly great drive.