Verstappen Rues Timing of Singapore Safety Car as Ten-Race Winning Run Comes to an End

Max Verstappen saw his ten-race winning streak come to an end in the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday, although he rues the timing of the safety car that could have seen a better result than fifth place around the Marina Bay Street Circuit.

In a rare off weekend for Oracle Red Bull Racing, Verstappen had found himself starting eleventh on the grid, and the Dutchman gambled on starting on the hard compound tyre, hoping to reap the benefits of running the medium compound later on.

However, the timing of the safety car was not on his side, and he was forced to take the restart on well used hard tyres, which meant he was a sitting duck to those who had made their stop. 

When he finally did stop for tyres of his own, the pace of the RB19 was evident to see as he was able to make some good overtaking manoeuvres, and he ended up fifth on the road, just a couple of tenths back on Charles Leclerc.

“I think we did the best we could today,” said Verstappen.  “We had good pace and we were just unfortunate with the timing of the safety car, if it weren’t for that, I really think that we would have been in a good place to fight up front.

“With the strategy today it was really important to not make any mistakes. In the end I was able to have some fun catching up on the mediums.”

Verstappen says he knew that everything would have to be perfect for Red Bull to win every race, and he was expecting the day to come where their amazing run came to an end.  However, his focus is already on returning to winning away this weekend in Japan.

“For now, the target is to win next weekend in Japan,” said the Dutchman.  “Everything needs to be perfect to win every race in a season, I knew this day would come and it’s absolutely fine.

“Everyone sees how dominant we can be and they don’t realise how difficult it really is, we need to get a lot of things right.”

“It was as tough as we expected it to be” – Sergio Pérez

Team-mate Sergio Pérez also struggled in Singapore, the Mexican scoring only four points on his way to eighth, with his race also affected by contact with Alexander Albon that earned him a five-second time penalty.

Pérez had also been eliminated in Q2 during Saturday’s Qualifying session and was not able to make the same kind of progress as Verstappen on Sunday, and he knows there is plenty to learn and understand to solve why Red Bull were not as competitive in Singapore as they had been in every other weekend this season.

“It was not a great day for us, it was as tough as we expected it to be, we struggled all race and nothing really worked,” said Pérez.  “The safety cars came at the wrong time and it was similar with the VSCs, it was just not our day.

“In the end we were on a different strategy to everyone else and that was the best we could do. I think we have plenty of things to investigate after this weekend and a lot to understand as a Team.

“I think the issues were circuit related and we should be stronger next weekend, let’s move on and look forward to Japan.”

Sergio Pérez could only finish eighth in Singapore – Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images