2022 Singapore Grand Prix

The **2022 Singapore Grand Prix** was a Formula 1.5 motor race held on 2 October 2022 at the Marina Bay Street Circuit in Marina Bay, Singapore. Although the regular 61 laps were scheduled, only 59 were completed due to the two hours time limit being reached. The start of the race was delayed by over a hour due to a thunderstorm and led to the race starting under wet conditions which gradually dried to allow slick tyres in the second half of the race.

## Background

The event was held across the weekend of the 30 September – 2 October. It was the seventeenth round of the 2022 Formula 1.5 World Championship and the first time the event had been held since 2019, with the 2020 and 2021 races cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

### Championship standings before the race

Lando Norris led the Drivers' Championship by 21 points from Esteban Ocon, second, and Fernando Alonso, third, by 51. Alpine led the Constructors' Championship, leading McLaren by 93 points and Alfa Romeo by 220 points.

### Entrants

The drivers and teams were the same as the season entry list with no additional stand-in drivers for the race.

### Tyres

Tyre supplier Pirelli brought the C3, C4, and C5 tyre compounds (designated hard, medium, and soft, respectively) for teams to use at the event.

### Track Changes

The first and the third activation point of the DRS were moved further back, being positioned 48 metres (157 ft) after turn 5 and 43 metres (141 ft) after the apex of turn 23, respectively.

## Practice

The first practice session was topped by Ocon, followed by Lance Stroll in second and Pierre Gasly in third. Ocon would go on to top FP2 but this time would be ahead of Valtteri Bottas and teammate Fernando Alonso. The third and final practice session was topped by Alonso with Stroll finishing P2 and Ocon P3.

## Qualifying

Qualifying began under wet conditions with the drivers starting on intermediate tyres, then switching to dry, soft compound tyres in Q3.

## Race

The race was held on 2 October. It was due to start at 20:00 local time (UTC+08:00), before being delayed to 21:05 due to thunderstorms. The race started with all cars on the intermediate tyres. Lando Norris took the lead from Fernando Alonson into turn 1. On lap 7 a safety car was deployed following a collision between Nicholas Latifi and Zhou Guanyu, forcing both to retire. Later in the race, Alonso retired from 2nd place on lap 21 due to an engine failure. Alonso's retirement caused a virtual safety car. An additional two virtual safety car periods followed, the first when Alexander Albon struck the wall, resulting in the loss of the front wing and his retirement due to damage, and the second after Esteban Ocon suffered an engine failure.

The field started to switch to dry tyres after seeing F1.0 driver George Russell set faster lap times, with Gasly being the first to pit on lap 34. Yuki Tsunoda crashed out at turn 10 on lap 36, triggering a second safety car. Having stayed out of the pits for an additional lap, this allowed the McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo to pit and jump upto 2nd place in the running order.

## Championship Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

;Constructors' Championship standings

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  1

## External Links

1. ↑  The race was scheduled to be 61 laps
2. ↑ Includes 1 point for fastest lap