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Lewis Hamilton grabbed the headlines with a faultless drive in the the Singapore Grand Prix to win his fourth race in five Grands Prix. The race around Marina Bay was largely uneventful, but there were some standout performances and a few crazy incidents in Sunday's Formula 1 action. So, who picks up our awards for the weekend? Keep reading to find out!
Driver of the Weekend
There's no beating around the bush here, only one man was going to pick this one up, and it's the defending champion, Lewis Hamilton. Marina Bay is one of the few circuits where Mercedes have struggled (by their standards, at least) around in the turbo-era. In 2015, they were miles off the pace; in 2017, half the top men were taken out on Lap 1; and even though both 2014 and 2016 brought wins, it was only just ahead of the chasing pack.
Red Bull and Ferrari will have pigeonholed this race as one to capitalise on Merc's lack of pace. However, that simply didn't happen, as Hamilton produced a perfect lap in qualifying to take pole position. The four-time world champion even went as far as to label the tour the best of his career, and it's hard to argue against that statement.
In the race itself, aside from a hairy moment while lapping traffic, he was never threatened, keeping Sebastian Vettel at arm's length in the first stint, and relatively cruising across the line ahead of Max Verstappen in the second.
Best Overtake
Overtaking is usually at a premium around the streets of Singapore, but Sunday's race took that to the extreme. Just look how long it took Sergio Perez to get past Sergey Sirotkin's Williams (more on that later), normally that wouldn't be a contest. Sebastian Vettel put a good move in on Max Verstappen to get into second place on the first lap, but it's the Dutchman who takes this one home.
Vettel had stopped early in an attempt to undercut Hamilton for the lead, but the Mercedes man remained ahead of the Ferrari challenger. Verstappen briefly led the race while Perez held Vettel up for a lap or two.
Max pitted onto softs and despite a slightly slow stop and a stuttering getaway, came out of the pits level with Vettel. The Red Bull driver had the inside line and pushed Seb wide, despite his warmer and faster tyres. It's not a typical overtake, but it was a crucial move, and a gritty and determined one at that.
Egg on Face Trophy
The Egg on Face Trophy goes to the driver or team who left the race feeling rather embarrassed at the events that day. Ferrari could've taken this one home for poor strategy choices for Vettel, but it's Sergio Perez who is awarded this dishonourable award. Perez broke the golden rule of racing, "Don't take your teammate out" on just the first lap.
The Mexican driver was probably watching Romain Grosjean's Haas to his left-hand side but completely missed that Esteban Ocon in the sister Force India had pulled up alongside him. Perez ran Ocon out of the road and the Frenchman was out of the race with damage before it had hardly begun, but this wasn't the end of Perez's misdemeanours.
Credit to Perez, he had a great first stint after that, pulling out a big gap to eighth place and running not far behind Daniel Ricciardo in a firm best of the rest position. After the stops, he maintained his gap to Nico Hulkenberg but was soon bottled up behind Sergey Sirotkin's Williams. The Russian driver had stopped during the Safety Car period which Perez caused and potentially could've run till the end on his soft compound tyres.
Sirotkin was driving very impressively and wasn't making any mistakes, much to the frustration of Sergio. Later in the race, Perez went for a move and seemed to have the job done but Sergey was keeping his nose in. The battle went on for several corners but on the run down to the underpass (Turns 18 and 19) the red mist descended on the pink panther.
Perez swiped left, despite Sirotkin being clearly alongside, damaging both of their cars, the former a puncture and the latter aerodynamic damage which plagued his pace until the finish.
Perez would later receive a drive-through penalty for his antics, the minimum he deserved for such poor driving. He ended up finishing sixteenth instead of the potential seventh place he was running around in, in the early stages.
Special Recognition Award
There were some superb drives in Singapore, the aforementioned Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen being two of the standouts. One driver who largely escaped our attention was Fernando Alonso, despite an excellent Sunday drive. The Spaniard began the race in P11, meaning that he had choice of tyres for the start, which turned out to be crucial later on.
Beginning the race on the ultrasofts meant that he didn't fall into the trap of being stuck behind the Williams cars of Sirotkin and Stroll. This allowed the McLaren man to jump the likes of Hulkenberg, Grosjean and Perez and relatively cruise to another P7 and win the unofficial best of the rest title, and this award.
Despite leaving Formula 1 for 2019, and being in an uncompetitive McLaren, the double world champion is putting in some amazing drives, what a special driver he is. We'll miss you 'Nando.
Agree with our choices? Who do you think deserved an award this weekend? Let us know in the comments below!
