A messy night for Verstappen
The world championship leader started eighth and finished seventh. But those bare statistics only tell a sliver of his messy story from Singapore. Verstappen was left venting expletives on the radio on Saturday when he was called off from what looked certain to be a pole-winning lap. He backed off when Red Bull realised he was short of fuel for the mandatory post-session scrutineer’s sample. Without that he’d have been dumped to the back of the grid, but eighth was little consolation when he knew what would have been – and on a weekend when a victory might have delivered him the second world title that looks a certainty.
The crown is surely only a matter of time, but the win he needed from a lowly grid position – as we’ve seen from Verstappen on other occasions this year – was always a long shot on this tough street track. Still, after a poor first lap that dropped him to 12th, he was the only driver on the move in the early stages, impressively picking off cars ahead of him in still treacherous conditions to rise up to sixth. After the first safety car, he passed both Sebastian Vettel and Pierre Gasly on a single lap, such was his determination.
But then came another error when, after the second safety car, he tried a dive on Lando Norris’s McLaren on newly fitted slicks and slid straight on at Turn Seven. After a quick spin-turn he charged back from 14th and picked up eighth with a minute and a half left on the clock when Lewis Hamilton ran wide while attacking Vettel. He then also passed the Aston Martin on the final lap for seventh as the gruelling marathon ran to its two-hour maximum.
Verstappen can win the title at Suzuka on Sunday, but he’ll need to win with fastest lap if Leclerc is second. Perez is two points behind the Ferrari driver in third.