In the round-up: Esteban Ocon was satisfied with his pass on his former team mate during the Singapore Grand Prix.
In brief
Alonso was “growing impatient” behind Perez – Ocon
Ocon spent 36 laps behind Fernando Alonso before pouncing on the Aston Martin driver for eighth place as the pair ran behind the slowing Sergio Perez.
The Alpine driver gained two more places as the Red Bull pair pitted, but he retired with a third of the race to go. Nonetheless, Ocon was pleased to have been on course for a good result and particularly satisfied with his pass on former team mate Alonso.
“It feels as good as taking sixth place,” he said of the move. “It was quite nice.
“Early in the race I saw that I was quite comfortably following him, much more than the other races where we were quite close on track. His rear-end was quite loose, mine was quite stable, and I knew that at some point my time would come, because there was a lot of fighting. Max [Verstappen] was off, Sergio was quite slow ahead and I was seeing him growing impatient and at some point obviously tried to go, and that opens the door for me to go alongside and then to pass also Checo.”
Piastri “really happy” with 17th to seventh charge
Oscar Piastri scored the third-best result of his rookie season so far in Singapore with seventh place and did so from a lowly 17th on the grid.
The McLaren driver ran 14th through the race’s first stint, gained a spot with his first pit stop, and then another on a Safety Car restart. When Kevin Magnussen had two offs on lap 36 of 62, Piastri profited to take 12th and then the Red Bull drivers’ pit stops and Ocon’s retirement lifted him to eighth. That became seventh when Alonso pitted, and although he was overtaken by Verstappen he moved back up a place when George Russell crashed out ahead on the last lap.
“I’m really, really happy,” said Piastri afterwards. “I think starting 17th in Singapore is never the most exciting prospect. So to come away with P7, after all that, is a fantastic result. I don’t think we could have done more than that. So I’m very happy, a great result for the team as well, great points.
“I think we’ve had a really good start. First lap as well. Picked off a few cars and then we just were patient and had a safety car that was at the right time, this time, which helped. Some good fortune, but also some good moves, good patience and just capitalising only when we had to.”
Mercedes juniors make headlines in Italy
The highest profile junior single-seater series in action last weekend was the Formula Regional European Championship, and points leader Andrea Kimi Antonelli nearly won both its races at Monza.
The Mercedes Formula 1 junior won the first race on-the-road from fourth on the grid, but was handed a post-race penalty for illegally activating push-to-pass on lap one. That dropped him to 11th in the final results, but he bounced back the next day with pole and victory to cement his status as title favourite.
Fellow Mercedes junior Alex Powell meanwhile did win a title, as the Champions of the Future kart series finished at Franciacorta. He did not win a single race at the event, but second in the final was more than enough to make him champion. He confirmed that, after next month’s World Karting Championship, he will move up from karts for cars.
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Links
Motor racing links of interest:
Singapore Grand Prix: ‘Turning point? No, but Singapore was fun while it lasted’ (BBC)
‘Red Bull had come to Singapore expecting it to be their toughest race of the season but no-one – inside the team or outside – expected them to be this bad. F1 teams are secretive by nature, but Red Bull take that – as so much else – to extremes and were not about to explain what had gone wrong. Chief engineer Paul Monaghan admitted they had ‘some problems in the car that we know about that we can’t fix immediately’.’
Results of Euro 4’s second Monza race ‘frozen’ until an October meeting (Formula Scout)
‘The race featured an unusual incident in which a marshal showed a Safety Car board and had a yellow flag waving at his post when the track was green. Some drivers slowed, while others noticed no yellow flags at the next marshal post and pushed on.’
Will Power comes up winless in 2023 but still finds positives in wife’s recovery (NBC)
‘Will Power did not successfully defend his IndyCar title. In fact, he didn’t finish in the top five in the standings and went winless for the first since 2006. But in the most important way, Power can claim the greatest victory of all in 2023. His wife, Liz, is on the road to recovery from a mysterious health issue that nearly took her life.’
With his points in Singapore, Liam Lawson positions himself for 2024 (Autohebdo)
‘Amid the rumours and while the last places on the 2024 grid are gradually finding takers, Liam Lawson has chosen the best time to highlight himself. Continuing his two very good first impressions at Zandvoort, where he was called up at short notice on Friday evening, and at Monza, where he missed the top 10 by not much, the member of the Red Bull fold shone under the Singapore spotlight as he produced a very clean race, confirming more his speedy adaptation to F1.’
“IndyCar now faces increased competition from F1’s growing stature in America. NASCAR Holdings also has seen growth and is innovating with both its NASCAR stock car series and IMSA sports car property, adding further pressure on IndyCar.”
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On this day in motorsport
- 30 years ago today Nigel Mansell clinched the CART IndyCar title as a rookie with victory in the Nazareth Grand Prix, his final win in an IndyCar
