Carlos Sainz clinched his second career F1 race victory today, winning the Singapore Grand Prix after coming out top in an epic battle with Lando Norris, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.
But while it looked as though it was literally anyone's race to win right to the end, Sainz insisted that he had felt fully in control of proceedings right from the start, when he had lined up in pole position on medium tyres.
Sainz was able to beat Russell into the first corner and led every one of the 62 laps that ensured, even when his team mate Charles Leclerc was pushing him on the soft compound.
Sainz opted not to pit a second time under a Virtual Safety Car, when Russell and Hamilton both came in for a set of fresh mediums. While they scythed their way back toward the front runners, Sainz was still feeling confident of winning.
"I felt under control, to be honest," he told the media in parc ferme after the end of the race. "I always felt like I had the headspace and the pace in hand to do whatever I wanted to do.
"I'm not going to lie, you're under pressure," he admitted. "You're obviously very close to making any kind of mistake, but I felt under control.
"I felt like I could manage well, and we brought it home. That was the best feeling, you know? I am over the moon right now!"
The early initial pit stop under a safety car for Logan Sargeant's accident wasn't well-timed for Sainz, who said it had made things more difficult for the team with an extended second stint.
"I knew it was going to be a long stint on hard," Sainz said, explaining that he had needed to keep a close eye on Russell during that spell.
"I had to keep George, I had to keep him slowing down," he said. "Don't give him a safety car or a medium tyre opportunity. And it worked to perfection."
But the VSC following Esteban Ocon's retirement with gearbox issues did give Russell and Hamilton the opportunity to pit for a new set of mediums. Although they dropped 15s away, they were now much faster.
After the Mercedes pair quickly swallowed up Leclerc, they were bearing down on Sainz who now had Norris behind him in second. Ferrari decided there was an opportunity to use the McLaren to defend Sainz.
"It was just quite tight at the end,' said Sainz, who slowed up to keep Norris within DRS range - which the Briton could then use to fight off Russell. "We gave Lando a bit of DRS to help him and then in the end, we made it to P1."
Sainz ended up crossing the line eight tenths ahead of Norris to capture his second win, after his maiden victory with Ferrari at Silverstone last year.
His former McLaren team mate and good friend Norris duly claimed second after Russell crashed out on the final lap pushing too hard, leaving Hamilton to claim the final podium place ahead of Leclerc and Max Verstappen.
The win means that Sainz has cut 25 points off Fernando Alonso's lead in the battle for fourth place in the drivers championship, while Ferrari have halved their points deficit to Mercedes in the constructors standings.
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