The glittering sports event of the Formula 1 Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix 2023 ended last night with team Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz spraying the champagne.
“Not a bad Singapore GP weekend,” posted Scuderia Ferrari, the Formula One (also Formula 1 or F1) racing arm of the luxury supercar-maker, on the social network X, followed by a trophy emoji.
McLaren driver Lando Norris came in second and Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton finished third. Hamilton is widely regarded as one of the best F1 drivers of all time — he has a joint-record seven Formula One World Drivers’ Champion titles (tied with Michael Schumacher) — but he did not conquer Singapore this time. Norris, 14 years younger than Hamilton, is labelled a “rising star”, a reputation that he cemented this weekend.
Sainz ended the winning streak of Max Verstappen, the team Red Bull driver who won the Formula One World Drivers’ Champion title in 2021 and 2022.
Verstappen had won 10 consecutive F1 races before missing a podium finish at the Singapore Grand Prix 2023. After losing in Singapore, he said that he was confident of team Red Bull coming out on top at the Japanese Grand Prix next weekend.
Singapore champion Carlos Sainz comes from great racing stock; his father, Carlos Sainz Sr, was a renowned racing driver, too. The Singapore Grand Prix 2023 is his second F1 win, after the British Grand Prix 2022.