Perez wins in Singapore as Verstappen is made to wait for title

Sergio Perez claimed a brilliant win, his second of the season, in gruelling conditions at the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday, but his Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen was made to wait to claim his second world championship.

The Mexican, starting from pole position, had to keep his head at the hottest race of the year. With safety car an virtual safety car periods backing the pack up and helping Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc close the gap back to the leader, Perez drove impeccably to keep the Monegasque behind to claim his fourth win, building up a big gap in the closing stages while he was under investigation for a potential infringement that never came.

“I am so happy to get this victory for me and my team, it means a lot to me,” he said. “I haven’t been on the podium the last couple of races but I was always working under the radar and making big noises behind the scenes, so I am super proud of the performance today.

“Mentally it was tough and you had to stay alert for the whole race. It was super tricky in the conditions out there today and people underestimate how difficult it is to drive in those, going through the final sector was so hard.

“We were driving on slicks in the wet trying to keep the temperature and that is difficult. When they told me I was under investigation I just pushed like qualifying for 15 laps to get as big a gap as possible to Charles.”

But while Red Bull were celebrating the victory, they were made to wait for the world championship as Max Verstappen finished seventh in an eventful race for the Dutchman.

Dropping down to 12th at the wet start, Verstappen had to fight through the field but lost ground when he tried to overtake Lando Norris for fourth place, forced to pit with flat-spotted tyres. Needing to win and for Leclerc to not score in Singapore to wrap up his second championship title, Verstappen crossed the line seventh with a late move on Sebastian Vettel in the Aston Martin.

Verstappen said: “It was a frustrating weekend. The race didn’t start off well, I had an anti-stall so I lost a lot of positions at the start.

“From there onwards, I got myself back into a reasonable position after switching to slicks, but when I wanted to go for the move on Lando I braked and I hit a big bump and bottomed out and locked up. I boxed for new tyres as I had a massive flat spot so I had to start all over again from the back.

“It’s tough to pass people on this track, especially when we’ve all got our tyres up to temperature, so I was stuck for a while.

“It was good to get a few points but that’s not what we are here for, time to focus on to Japan.”