Will Verstappen win Singapore 2023? This was the gruelling race of 2022

Poor qualifying, bad start in wet Singapore for Verstappen

Verstappen started from P8 after an exciting qualifying session that started wet and ended dry. It was not a nice finish for Verstappen. Indeed, the Red Bull Racing driver was told over the team radio on his final lap that he had to abort his lap. Sunday's race started on a wet track. A potentially spectacular race by Verstappen was ahead.

While Perez immediately outsmarted Ferrari's Charles Leclerc at the start, Verstappen had a very poor start. The Dutchman fell straight back to 11th place, where he battled with Kevin Magnussen and Lance Stroll for P10. At that time, it was still raining lightly, and in the narrow streets of Singapore, in the middle of traffic, things were getting tough. Verstappen kept his elbows out and made contact with both drivers in his overtaking attempts.

As a result, Verstappen lost another position to Daniel Ricciardo. On lap two, Verstappen was again ahead of Ricciardo and Magnussen, but there was still a tough challenge ahead of him. Verstappen then fairly easily found plenty of grip on the still-wet asphalt and worked his way forward to P6 against in a tumultuous race with two safety cars, but also with nice overtaking manoeuvres on Sebastian Vettel and Pierre Gasly.

Remarkable Verstappen moment during attack on Norris

On lap 33, just past halfway in the race, the tipping point started to come for the dry tyres. Yuki Tsunoda crashed hard, and during the safety car, Verstappen took good advantage of the pit stops. Verstappen resumed the race from P5 behind Norris. Up to speed for the first time on his new dry weather tyres (medium) and on the slightly wet tarmac, Verstappen went on the attack on Norris. The Dutchman braked late and was lucky there was a long run-out lane at the corner.

Verstappen had to get new soft tyres and fell back to P11. Verstappen shot to P10 as the clock expired with 15 minutes to go. Singapore is a long and slower track, and the rain and safety cars meant that the race would go over the time limit in completing all laps.

With a good minute to go, Verstappen was able to take advantage of the fight between Hamilton and Vettel. Hamilton made a mistake under braking, which allowed the Dutchman to easily move up to P8. On the last lap, it still became P7 for Verstappen as he passed Vettel's Aston Martin, while teammate Perez won the race by a good seven seconds over Leclerc.