Vettel finally ends his win drought, Magnussen becomes a Singapore record holder and Giovinazzi leads a race for the first time. Here are all the facts and statistics from the 2019 Singapore Grand Prix weekend!
VINTAGE VETTEL
Sebastian Vettel won the 2019 Singapore Grand Prix, recording his 53rd victory and his first since the 2018 Belgian Grand Prix. This was Vettel’s fifth victory in Singapore, a new record for most wins at the event. The Marina Bay Circuit also becomes the track at which the German has won most frequently. He’s taken four wins in Japan, Malaysia and Bahrain. Vettel becomes the first driver to have won from third on the grid in Singapore since he did so himself in 2012.
For Ferrari, this was their third win in Singapore – two victories having been supplied by Vettel, and the other by Fernando Alonso in 2010. 2019 marks the first time that a team have recorded a 1-2 finish at the Singapore Grand Prix. It’s only the third time that Ferrari have taken pole and won in the same weekend at the Singapore Grand Prix, the other occurrences being in 2010 and 2015.
Sebastian Vettel has won the last two races held on 22nd September, both held at the Marina Bay Circuit.
Vettel claimed his first win since the 2018 Belgian Grand Prix 392 days ago. But that’s not the longest gap between two wins in a driver’s career – in fact, there are 90 longer intervals between two wins for a driver in Formula 1 history. Vettel himself has had two longer gap between wins in his career. He had to wait for 490 days for a victory between his last Red Bull win at the 2013 Brazilian Grand Prix and his first with Ferrari at the 2015 Malaysia Grand Prix, and he also had a 553 day wait between his wins at the 2015 Singapore Grand Prix and the 2017 Australian Grand Prix.
Somewhat unbelievably, this is the first time Ferrari have recorded three consecutive wins since 2008. Their last three consecutive wins came during a streak of four victories between the 2008 Malaysia and Turkey races. Should Ferrari win in Russia, it’d be only the twelfth time that the team have taken four consecutive wins in their history.
Sebastian Vettel has reclaimed the top spot for most laps led in Singapore, having led 252 laps of the Marina Bay Circuit. He overtakes Lewis Hamilton, who has led 249 laps.
A RARE OCCURRENCE FOR RED BULL
Red Bull were deemed by some to be the favourites heading into the Singapore Grand Prix, but that proved not to be the case. 2019 marks the first time that no Red Bull driver has appeared in the top three on the grid at the Marina Bay Circuit since 2008 and the first time that neither of the team’s drivers have finished in the top two at the track since 2009.
Max Verstappen’s third place in the race means that Red Bull have appeared on the podium in every Singapore Grand Prix this decade. This is a rare occurrence for a team. From current circuits, Ferrari are the only other team to have scored a podium finish in every year of a decade at a single track. They did it at Monza back in the 1950s!
Verstappen moves up to 35th in the all time list of most podium finishes. He ties with Clay Regazzoni on 28.
ANOTHER POLE FOR LECLERC
After taking pole position in Singapore, Charles Leclerc now has more poles than any other driver has had at the age of 21. It was Ferrari’s fifth pole in Singapore, with Leclerc becoming the sixth different driver to have taken pole position at the circuit. The Monegasque driver has now had more pole positions in 2019 than anyone else.
With his fifth career pole, Leclerc has now started from the front of the grid the same number of times as Giuseppe Farina, Chris Amon, Clay Regazzoni, Patrick Tambay and Keke Rosberg did in their careers.
On Sunday, Leclerc became the first polesitter in Singapore to finish on the podium without winning, as well as the first polesitter to have scored points at the circuit without winning. It was his eighth podium finish, equalling the career totals of Luigi Villoresi, Lorenzo Bandini, Peter Revson, Jean-Pierre Beltoise, Jochen Mass and Sergio Perez.
NO POINTS FOR FASTEST LAP
For the first time in 2019, the point for fastest lap was not awarded as the driver who set it finished outside the top ten. This is the second year in a row that Kevin Magnussen has set the fastest lap of the Singapore Grand Prix. Last year’s Marina Bay race also happens to be the last time that the driver who set the fastest lap finished outside the points. Magnussen’s second fastest lap means he shares the record for most fastest laps at the circuit with Fernando Alonso, Daniel Ricciardo and Lewis Hamilton. Neither the Track Record nor the Lap Record was broken this weekend.
A NEW LEADER
Antonio Giovinazzi led four laps of the 2019 Singapore Grand Prix, making him the 172nd driver to have led a lap of a Formula 1 race. It’s the first time since Williams led the opening laps of the 2015 British Grand Prix that a team other than Mercedes, Ferrari or Red Bull has led a lap. For the team, it’s the first time the former Sauber cars have led a race since Esteban Gutierrez led two laps of the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix, and the first time the Alfa Romeo name has led a race since Andrea de Cesaris led the 1983 Belgian Grand Prix.
THE NON-FINISHERS
After crashing with Romain Grosjean, George Russell retired from a Grand Prix for the first time in his career. It’s also the first time that a Williams driver has retired this season, and the first time a Williams car has retired from a race since both Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin failed to finish the 2018 German Grand Prix. Kimi Raikkonen also recorded his first DNF of the season, meaning that Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and Robert Kubica are now the only driver yet to fail to finish in 2019.
Sergio Perez was another retirement in the Singapore Grand Prix, brining to an end his 100% finish rate at the Marina Bay Circuit.
KIMI AND LEWIS EQUAL SCHUMACHER
While Kimi Raikkonen equalled Michael Schumacher’s tally of starts this weekend, Lewis Hamilton equalled Schumacher as the driver to have led the most Grands Prix in Formula 1 history. Hamilton led seven laps of the Singapore Grand Prix, making it the 142nd race which he has led laps of. Schumacher led his 142nd race at the 2011 Japanese Grand Prix.
This is the first Singapore Grand Prix where neither Mercedes driver has finished on the podium since 2015 – which is also the last time the team failed to win at the circuit.
DEJA VU AT McLAREN
McLaren recorded the same result as they did at least year’s Singapore Grand Prix, with one driver finishing seventh and the other finishing twelfth. Lando Norris made this the fourth consecutive season that a McLaren driver has finished seventh in Singapore.
ANOTHER SINGAPORE SAFETY CAR
The Singapore Grand Prix maintains its record of the Safety Car appearing in every event. There were three Safety Car periods in this event, matching the record for most outings at the track from 2017. The number of Safety Car stints meant that all seventeen drivers who finished the race finished on the same lap as the leader – the third time that has happened in Singapore, after 2008 and 2009.
QUALIFYING STATS
In qualifying, Renault saw both drivers reach Q3 for the first time in their history at the Singapore Grand Prix. Even under their Lotus guise, the Enstone team never saw both drivers qualify in the top ten at the Marina Bay Circuit.
Lance Stroll recorded the first Q1 exit for a Racing Point (formerly Force India) driver since Paul di Resta in 2013.
