Carlos Sainz took his second career win in F1 with an impressive drive at the Singapore GP; Sainz beat Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton in a thriller at the Marina Bay Street Circuit; watch all sessions for the Japanese GP live on Sky Sports F1 from September 22-24
Sunday 17 September 2023 17:43, UK
Carlos Sainz says keeping Lando Norris within DRS range during the closing laps of the Singapore Grand Prix was key to his victory on Sunday.
Sainz, Norris and Charles Leclerc opted to not pit for a second time when a Virtual Safety Car came out with 18 laps to go, whereas George Russell and Lewis Hamilton came in for new mediums.
Russell was 18 seconds behind Sainz when he came out of the pits and looked on course for the win as he breezed by Leclerc.
However, he could not overtake Norris despite moving alongside the McLaren driver on the run down to Turn 16 with four laps remaining.
After that, Sainz tried to hold Norris in his DRS, so the British driver had a better chance of keeping Russell and Hamilton behind.
"I knew more or less my pace versus Lando and how difficult it is to overtake here. I knew he was on a hard and if George and Lewis were going to overtake me I would be 'dead meat' also, so I needed him to hold on for as long as possible," Sainz told Sky Sports F1.
"A couple of laps I was 1.2 or 1.3 seconds ahead of Lando, so I slowed down a bit to give him DRS into Turn 7, which was just enough for him to hold onto them and keep my race under control - not easy because you are putting yourself under risk and you cannot do any mistakes, but it was my strategy and it worked."
Norris held on to second place from Hamilton at the chequered flag, as Russell dramatically crashed out at Turn 10 on the final lap.
Sainz and Norris spent two seasons together as team-mates at McLaren in 2019 and 2020, before the Spaniard joined Ferrari.
The so-called DRS train worked in Singapore and Norris agreed with Sainz's comments about their tactics in the closing laps.
"Amazing. Great race. No overtaking on track but perfect strategy. A great pit stop from my guys to get ahead of Charles and a good strategy," said Norris.
"Both Mercedes boxed and I thought it was a guarantee that they would get back past me, but I managed to hold them off. Carlos helped me achieve that. We worked together pretty well to help one another. If I got overtaken, he would have done.
"I had to play it tactical. If I attacked Carlos, I probably wouldn't have finished on the podium. I had to play it smart, and Carlos played it smart. He was clever with it all, so congrats to him."
Get ready to set those early alarms as Formula 1 now heads to Suzuka for the Japanese GP. Watch all sessions live on Sky Sports F1 from September 22-24. Stream F1 on Sky Sports with NOW. Cancel anytime
