Sebastian Vettel (P8, 4 pts): 8/10
It's been a somewhat subdued spell of late for Sebastian Vettel and for Aston Martin, but the two-time champion loves Singapore (he was the winner here when the last race was run in 2019 before COVID closed everything down) and it showed. He was dancing on the cusp of the top ten throughout practice whatever the weather, only to miss the cut at the end of the second round of qualifying leaving him in 14th place when the team made the premature decision to put both its drivers on soft slicks instead of sticking with intermediates. But he got the best start of anyone on Sunday night, and finished the first lap in eighth place tucked in behind Pierre Gasly. The first safety car and Max Verstappen speeding by on the comeback trail dropped him to ninth on lap 11, but Fernando Alonso's retirement put him back in P8 on lap 21. Pit stops allowed him to get ahead of Gasly, but also dropped him behind his own team mate Lance Stroll who got ahead on lap 33. After the final safety car Vettel was up to P7, but he got hunted down for a second time by a resurgent Verstappen and beaten in a dash for the line by the Red Bull which was on a new set of softs while Vettel was grappling for rear grip on his older mediums.
Max Verstappen (P7, 6 pts): 8.5/10
Max Verstappen arrived at Singapore in the knowledge that he could mathematically clinch his second world championship this weekend. To do that, he would have to win the race and his closest title rivals (Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez) do badly. As is so often the case, pretty much the exact reverse happened. Verstappen had his now predictable muted Friday (second behind Lewis Hamilton in FP1, then fourth in FP2) and he was a second off Leclerc in the wet final session on Saturday. Then just as we've seen him do so often he turned things up for qualifying and was flying to pole - until the Red Bull pit wall ordered him to abort, leaving him fuming. It meant he would be eighth on the grid, but it's not like we haven't seen him charge to victory from that position (or worse) in the past. Not this time though: he went into anti-stall at the start and lost four places on the first lap, almost succumbed to Daniel Ricciardo, clashed with Kevin Magnussen and then got stuck behind Sebastian Vettel. The restart after the first safety car enabled him to get back on it, and Fernando Alonso's retirement promoted him to P6. Picking off Lando Norris should have been child's play for the Red Bull - but it wasn't. Increasingly frustrated, Verstappen bottomed out and locked up after the restart for the second safety car. Serious flatspotting forced him to make an emergency pit stop for a fresh set of tyres, which allowed him to pick off Magnussen, Bottas, Gasly, Hamilton and finally Vettel in the closing laps to finish in seventh. He wasn't happy though: "It was good to get a few points, but that's not what we are here for."
