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Carlos Sainz has won the Singapore Grand Prix following a thrilling four-way scrap for the lead in the final stages.
The Spaniard held on ahead of Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton, while George Russell crashed out of the podium fight on the final lap.
Red Bull had an anonymous race for the most part, Max Verstappen crossing the line fifth after starting 11th, the team’s strategy gamble failing to net him an unlikely race win.
And so ended the Milton Keynes operations’ unbeaten run, a Singapore Grand Prix that proved a sleepy affair until springing into life with a handful of laps remaining.
A sluggish start saw Russell slip to third off the line, while Hamilton took to the escape road when the field reached Turn 2.
He was fourth at the time and emerged third ahead of his Mercedes team-mate, who had Lando Norris in tow.
Sainz led the opening lap from his Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc by 1.2s, with Hamilton still third ahead of Russell, Norris, and Fernando Alonso.
A strong opening lap saw Oscar Piastri rise to 14th while Liam Lawson fell two places – one of those to Verstappen, who was 10th after the opening tour.
The two Mercedes did swap positions on Lap 2, Hamilton quickly coming under fire from Norris who’d complained to his McLaren pit wall that the seven-time champ should be further punished for his Turn 2 antics.
Officials disagreed, reviewing the incident but deeming no further action was required.
By the end of Lap 6, Verstappen had climbed to eighth, a gain of three places, despite starting on the hard compound rubber.
He ran almost 10 seconds back from Sainz in the race lead, who had Leclerc less than a second from his rear wing.
Leclerc had started the race on soft tyres, Ferrari splitting its strategy.
The Monegasque driver was clearly the faster of the two but was told by the Scuderia pit wall to drop back from one second behind the leader to three.
Complicating that task was Russell, who was less than two seconds behind Leclerc after 11 laps.
Leclerc didn’t appear to comply, prompting another call advising he needed a five-second deficit to Sainz ahead by Lap 22.
Sainz had improved his pace out front, inching his way clear by in doing so, pushing the gap to eighth-placed Verstappen out to 13.4s after 19 laps.
A mistake from Logan Sargeant on Lap 20 saw the Williams driver pluck the front wing from his car at Turn 8.
With debris flying from the damaged wing, which was trapped under Sargeant’s FW43, the Safety Car was called for.
It was perfectly timed for Leclerc on the soft tyres, though Ferrari boxed both its cars, and it was a sluggish stop for Leclerc.
He exited the lane behind Russell and Norris.
All but the two Red Bulls and Valtteri Bottas pitted, which left Verstappen second and Perez fourth.
Both were on the same hard compound tyres they’d been on since the race start, versus the new hards of the rest of the field (barring Zhou Guanyu, who was 17th).
The Safety Car was withdrawn at the end of Lap 22, Sainz skipping clear while Russell engaged Verstappen in battle for second on the road.
For Verstappen, it was about not losing time, while Russell had to clear the Red Bull quickly to remain in touch with the faster Ferrari ahead.
The Mercedes found a way by at Turn 16, an important move as Perez was fighting a similar rear-guard battle.
Just two laps after the restart, Verstappen had fallen to fourth, nearly four seconds adrift of the race leader.
Having cleared Verstappen, Russell quickly reeled in Sainz, whose rear gunner Leclerc had slipped to sixth on the road.
Out of sequence, the Red Bulls were sitting ducks; strategically they needed to run long to maximise the chance of a Safety Car or similar interruption, which would be their only saving grace.
Even then, the win looked out of reach as Russell and Hamilton, both of whom looked to have better car pace, had fresh tyres up their sleeves.
However, the further than ran beyond Lap 35 the worse it began to look for Red Bull, which was committed to the long opening stint strategy.
Perez finally stopped on Lap 39, leaving him a 23-lap run to the chequered flag on a set of new medium tyres.
However, he rejoined 17th, leaving him an uphill battle. What’s more, any strategic advantage had been lost as, with the emergence of another Safety Car, the entire field would box for soft tyres.
Verstappen was in next time by, also taking on a set of mediums, as he fed out just 15th.
It left an enthralling battle at the front, with Sainz less than a second clear of Russell, who was hotly pursued by Norris, Hamilton, and Leclerc, with daylight to Esteban Ocon in sixth.
The interruption Red Bull had wanted came too late, Ocon rolling to a halt at Turn 2 on Lap 43 to draw the Virtual Safety Car.
Second-placed Russell rolled the dice, pitting for a new set of medium tyres.
Hamilton too took to the lane, the Mercedes pair having banked a set of the yellow-walled rubber on Saturday.
It cost them track position but left them with a significant tyre advantage – and 17 laps in which to get the job done.
That was no small ask, as Russell sat fourth, one spot ahead of his team-mate.
Sainz continued to lead, Norris rising to second and Leclerc third, with a 13.5s advantage to the Mercedes duo behind.
The gap shrunk rapidly as the Mercedes duo lapped two seconds faster than Sainz out front.
The Spaniard was managing the race, with Norris unable to close to mount a challenge for the lead.
Leclerc too had slipped back as he sat in a lonely third, albeit with the charging Russell ever closing.
By Lap 53, Russell had caught Leclerc, quickly despatching the Ferrari driver at Turn 16. Hamilton was through half a lap later.
With four laps remaining, the leading battle became a four-way scrap, with Sainz heading Norris, who had both Russell and Mercedes for company.
Russell attacked Norris at Turn 16 on Lap 59, the pair coming close but ultimately remained as they were.
That allowed Sainz to skip slightly clear – a small but important break of 1.5 seconds with three laps remaining.
As they started the final lap, Sainz held a 1.093s advantage, while Norris’ mirrors were filled by the two Mercedes.
The win was out of reach, the trio fighting over the second podium spot at best.
The pressure proved too much for Russell, who snatched a brake at the Sling at skated into the tyre barrier.
That promoted Hamilton to third, though with no time to attack the McLaren ahead.
And so Sainz won from Norris and Hamilton, Leclerc holding on to fourth while Verstappen stole fifth.
The top 10 was filled by Pierre Gasly, Piastri, Perez, Lawson and Kevin Magnussen.
