By Rohith Nair
SINGAPORE, Oct 10 (Reuters) – Red Bull’s Max Verstappen tasted victory in Singapore for the first time as the polesitter won a chaotic sprint on Saturday after the start was delayed by over 30 minutes due to heavy rain while nine cars retired, a record for sprint races.
The victory was the first of any kind for the Dutchman in Singapore as he took the chequered flag ahead of Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.
“I want to win tomorrow. I don’t see this as a win in terms of actually winning a Grand Prix,” Verstappen said.
Mercedes’ championship leader Kimi Antonelli was gifted fourth place after the two McLarens collided on the final lap while his team mate George Russell crashed out of the lead on lap one.
Verstappen had kept his pole position after escaping a penalty for overtaking under a yellow flag on Friday but the Dutchman made a slow start as Russell stormed ahead and Hamilton swiftly moved up from sixth to third.
Russell’s sprint ended on the last turn of lap one when his rear tyre went over the kerb and he spun into the wall to bring the safety car out.
“The start was horrendous again, so that’s definitely something that we need to improve on because if you have something like that tomorrow, that’s your race over if nothing crazy happens,” Verstappen added.
“After that, you just want to keep it calm and under control because you know that you can’t pass around here.”
‘SILLY MISTAKE’ FOR RUSSELL
Russell said a miscalculation caused him to spin out at the last corner.
“I came through the corner, had more battery deployment than I thought. Pushed me a little bit wider than I hoped and then I just went on the white line,” Russell said.
“Yeah, silly mistake. Big, big consequences.”
The carnage continued when Lance Stroll and Sergio Perez retired after they collided and Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar was asked to stop his car due to a technical issue.
The safety car remained on track after Franco Colapinto’s Alpine also came to a standstill and they did not resume racing until lap seven.
Verstappen led from the Ferraris of Hamilton and Leclerc while the McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris were in the top five ahead of Antonelli.
MCLARENS COLLIDE ON FINAL LAP
McLaren’s hopes of a podium vanished, however, when reigning champion Norris nudged into Piastri and the two cars spun out, allowing Antonelli to move up to fourth place and stretch his championship lead over Russell to 89 points.
“I checked in my mirrors and I saw red lights of the back of the cars of the McLarens. So I knew that something happened,” Leclerc said.
The qualifying session for Sunday’s race was delayed due to the rain.
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Singapore, editing by Ed Osmond)
