Pérez sees off Leclerc in style as rivals slip and slide

The Singapore Grand Prix was billed as a potential title decider for Max Verstappen but instead of a coronation there was but consternation and contrition.

- Giles Richards

Nor was he the only world champion found wanting on the streets of Marina Bay. Lewis Hamilton was among a swathe of drivers caught out as these gladiators at the pinnacle of motor racing lumbered in ungainly style into the barriers under an unforgiving, floodlit glare.

Red Bull’s Sergio Pérez won the race with a commanding victory over Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc that served as a salutary reminder of how the track in treacherous, wet conditions could be tamed, in a race featuring a series of incidents prompting five interruptions by the safety and virtual safety car. It was Pérez’s fourth win and the best of his career, in that he mastered the slippery surface and fought off a race-long challenge from Leclerc. His victory hung in the balance for more than two hours afterwards for a safety-car infringement but the five-second penalty imposed did not deny him the place.

Yet what had caught the eye was behind him as many careered about the circuit with considerably less grace. Not least Verstappen, who put in what was comfortably the worst race of his season, a rollercoaster of charging up and falling back that ended with him managing only seventh.

The scale of just how far off his recent form he had been was evident as he sat slumped on the ground afterwards, apparently dumbfounded by a shocking day.