F1 Paddock Notebook – Singapore GP Sunday

- Sebastian Vettel scored his first victory of the 2019 Formula 1 season on Sunday in Singapore after undercutting Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc, leading Ferrari home for a one-two finish. It marked Vettel’s first win in 392 days – the last coming at the 2018 Belgian Grand Prix – and Ferrari’s first one-two since Hungary 2017. It was also the first one-two finish by a team in Singapore.

- Vettel’s winning pit stop came on Lap 19, giving him enough of a time gain to jump from P3 to the net lead, much to Leclerc’s frustration as he reacted one lap later. Leclerc vented his frustration over team radio throughout the remainder of the race, even asking at one point to use a higher engine mode so he could try and catch Vettel.

- Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto explained after the race that it had underestimated the power of the undercut in Singapore, with the final gain turning out to be 3.9 seconds. The team opted to pit Vettel before Leclerc to cover off Max Verstappen, who was running P4, and still expected Leclerc to be the net leader after he pitted.

- Ferrari was represented on the podium by its head of strategy, Inaki Rueda.

- Binotto stressed that Ferrari’s uplift in performance was not solely down to the update package that was brought to Singapore: “That cannot explain all of what we have seen. I think Singapore is still a very specific circuit, the drivers make the difference in their confidence, and the car balance has improved in the last races. The tyres as well, it was a different type of compounds compared to other races, and probably we made them work.”

- Max Verstappen scored his first podium since Hungary after also benefitting from the undercut to jump Lewis Hamilton, who was kept out seven laps longer as Mercedes tried to benefit from a Safety Car or incident. Verstappen said after the race that he was happy with a podium after struggling in qualifying, but added the result was a “wake-up call” for Red Bull as it struggled to live up to its pre-race favourite tag.

- Hamilton said after the race that he had been pushing Mercedes to try and use the undercut in the pre-race discussions, but was warned about the risk of traffic: “I was like ‘just at least take the risk’. But ultimately I didn’t know what the team knew in terms of where everyone was positioned and they took the decision to. We just missed it by one lap.”

- Valtteri Bottas saw the gap to Hamilton in the drivers’ championship grow to 65 points as he finished fifth, having been told at one stage to back off his pace in order to create a gap for Hamilton to drop into. “I already knew it at that point, because there are certain rules we follow,” Bottas said. “The one that qualified better, the one that who is ahead, always gets the priority and he can then choose to either go short or go long, and he chose to go long. Obviously, if I had gone flat out I would have undercut him and Albon would have done it too.”

- Alexander Albon took a third straight points finish for Red Bull in sixth, revealing after the race that his first Singapore experience was less physical than he had expected it to be. “I was expecting it to be way, way worse,” Albon said. “You’re managing so much, you spend the first 40 laps doing nothing, and it’s easy, and the last 20 laps when you push, you can feel it.”

- Lando Norris (P7) offered a different view. “It was still very tough. If the whole race was like the final 10 laps, I was under pressure and having to push, then I would probably be sweating more and saying I was more tired,” Norris said, having fended off Pierre Gasly and Nico Hulkenberg through the closing stages.

- Gasly was the only driver to start the race on Hard tyres, but it allowed the Frenchman to catapult himself up into the points, picking off a number of drivers through the closing stages en route to eighth. Gasly now has points in two of his three starts for Toro Rosso since rejoining the team.

- Gasly was the team’s sole point scorer after Daniil Kvyat dropped back late on following a clash with Kimi Raikkonen at Turn 1. Both drivers deemed it to be a racing incident, even if it forced Raikkonen to retire, triggering the third and final Safety Car of the race.

- Antonio Giovinazzi brought home a point for Alfa Romeo in lieu of Raikkonen, but even led the race at one stage after opting for a long first stint. “I hope my family took a picture of this!” he joked. Giovinazzi recovered from a clash with Daniel Ricciardo to bring home a point for Alfa in P10.

- Ricciardo watched the incident with Giovinazzi while talking to the media after the race, confirming he’d look to chat to the Italian about it. “I’ll go see him, but it’s not intentional,” Ricciardo said. “I’ll definitely go see him. Lance wasn’t man enough to apologise to me at the start of Spa, whether he thinks it was or not, but I’ll go and see Giovinazzi and say what I need to say.”

- Singapore reported its second-highest attendance on record for the grand prix weekend with a figure of 268,000 fans. This was aided by the regular musical offerings, including Swedish House Mafia, Muse, Gwen Stefani, Fatboy Slim, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.