Max Wins, George Crashes: Wild Wet Racing in Singapore

The Singapore Grand Prix Sprint was pure chaos under the lights. It proved that racing on city streets in the rain is incredibly hard for drivers.

If you are new to F1, a Sprint is a short, fast race. It is only 100 kilometers long, and drivers do not stop to change tires. It is a quick dash to the finish line. Heavy rain delayed the start by 30 minutes. This made the track very tricky because some parts were dry, but other corners had deep puddles.

Mercedes driver George Russell had a great start and passed Max Verstappen for the lead.

But Singapore's streets are unforgiving. In the wet, drivers use intermediate tires, which have grooves to push water away. However, if a tire touches the painted white lines on the track, it loses all grip because the paint becomes as slippery as ice. That is exactly what happened to Russell. He pushed too hard on the first lap, hit the white line, and crashed into the wall.

After that, Verstappen safely led the race to the end. 

While he took an easy win ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, the middle of the pack fell apart. Street tracks are very narrow, which makes passing other cars extremely hard. When everyone groups up after a safety car, crashes easily happen. 

A total of nine cars failed to finish the race. The biggest shock came on the very last lap, when McLaren teammates Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri crashed into each other.

Verstappen won the Sprint, but he is still worried. His car had a very slow start off the line. He knows that if he starts poorly in Sunday's main race, he will not get lucky again.

By Barbara Cardilli – Motorsport & Lifestyle Expert

Image credit @CBA images