At long last, Red Bull are defeated after Carlos Sainz produced an outstanding drive to win Sunday’s Singapore Grand Prix from Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton.
Charles Leclerc had been looking good to join his teammate on the podium, only to lose out when the virtual safety car came out, forcing him to defend from the fast-charging Max Verstappen at the finish.
Total-Motorsport.com’s driver ratings for the 2023 Singapore GP assesses all 20 drivers based on their qualifying and race performances at Marina Bay.
Team errors such as a slow pit stop or poor strategy do not affect our ratings as they are no fault of the drivers. Instead, our driver ratings solely look at how well the drivers got on throughout the weekend in Singapore.
F1 Driver Ratings – Singapore GP
Carlos Sainz 9.5/10
Qualifying: 1st – Race: 1st
It was a stunning weekend for Sainz, with a stellar qualifying lap topped by a perfect race, where he led every lap despite intense pressure from behind.
Lando Norris 8.5/10
Qualifying: 4th – Race: 2nd
With new upgrades applied, Norris drove a clever race, earning him his first podium since Hungary after keeping two charging Mercedes behind.
Lewis Hamilton 7.5/10
Qualifying: 5th – Race: 3rd
It was a hard-fought podium for Hamilton, who had lost time after straight-lining Turn 1 during the opening stages. Nonetheless, he kept calm and was quicker than his teammate as the race continued.
Charles Leclerc 7.5/10
Qualifying: 3rd – Race: 4th
Singapore was where Leclerc played the team game as a switch to the softs scuppered his chances of victory but crucially held up the Mercedes long enough to help secure victory for Sainz.
Max Verstappen 7/10
Qualifying: 11th – Race: 5th
Not the result Verstappen was anticipating heading into Singapore, and he was lucky to avoid a grid penalty after three separate incidents in Qualifying. A tricky race marred by grip issues followed, but a late charge to fifth was a good case of damage limitation.
Pierre Gasly 7/10
Qualifying: 12th – Race: 6th
It was a much better weekend for Gasly, who made up for a Q2 exit by quietly driving through the field and making excellent moves on faster cars to secure only his second top-six finish of 2023.
Oscar Piastri 7.5/10
Qualifying: 17th – Race: 7th
Piastri was perhaps unlucky to be eliminated in Q1 after having his final lap ruined by Stroll’s shunt. But the Australian bounced back well and picked up more solid points for McLaren.
Sergio Perez 5/10
Qualifying: 13th – Race: 8th
It was a 250th Grand Prix to forget for Perez, throwing away a chance at Q3 with a Turn 2 spin before colliding with Tsunoda and Albon on his way to eighth, with his poor weekend compounded by five-second time penalty after the race.
Liam Lawson 8.5/10
Qualifying: 10th – Race: 9th
Lawson had an outstanding weekend at a circuit he dreamed of visiting since childhood, knocking out Verstappen in Q3 before driving an excellent race to ninth and securing his first F1 points.
Kevin Magnussen 6.5/10
Qualifying: 6th – Race: 10th
Finally, points for Magnussen for only the third time in 2023 despite a brief blip when the Dane had an off at Turn 7, dropping him to as low as 16th.
Alex Albon 6.5/10
Qualifying: 14th – Race: 11th
Albon was on the backfoot after FP2, where an engine problem cost him virtually the whole session. Nonetheless, he advanced to Q2 and was unlucky not to reward his mechanics’ efforts after being shoved into the wall by Perez.
Zhou Guanyu 4.5/10
Qualifying: 19th [started from the pits] – Race: 12th
Zhou secured his F1 future before the Singapore weekend, but that’s as good as it got with a Q1 exit followed by a start from the pits, meaning he had little else to celebrate.
Nico Hulkenberg 6/10
Qualifying: 9th – Race: 13th
Singapore was yet another weekend where Hulkenberg’s individual talent couldn’t trickle down to the car, as a good qualifying was followed up by a fruitless race.
Logan Sargeant 3/10
Qualifying: 18th – Race: 14th
With his 2024 plans still yet to be decided, Sargeant did little to help his cause by being eliminated in Q1 before crashing at Turn 8 during the race, which brought the safety car out. A detached drive to 14th followed.
Fernando Alonso 4/10
Qualifying: 7th – Race: 15th
A chance of a good result for Alonso came and went with a catastrophically slow pitstop. However, he didn’t help himself by going over the white line on pit entry during the VSC, earning him a five-second penalty.
Valtteri Bottas 4.5/10
Qualifying: 16th – Race: DNF
Back to reality for Bottas as a Q1 exit was followed by a quiet race, which was ended by overheating issues in the closing laps.
George Russell 7/10
Qualifying: 2nd – Race: DNF
Throughout the weekend, Russell had kept Sainz honest, and in the final ten laps, he had a chance of victory, only to throw it away with a slight clip of the wall on the last lap, which brought his race to an abrupt end.
Esteban Ocon 7.5/10
Qualifying: 8th – Race: DNF
After ending a long wait to make Q3, Ocon had a superb race, running as high as seventh and dicing with former teammates Alonso and Perez before a suspected gearbox failure cruelly denied him points.
Yuki Tsunoda 4.5/10
Qualifying: 15th – Race: DNF
Misfortune comes in twos for Tsunoda as after missing out on Q3, his race lasted a mere two laps following contact caused by Perez in the opening stages.
Lance Stroll 1.5/10
Qualifying: 20th – Race: DNS
Off the pace and unlikely to advance into Q2, Stroll pushed too hard in Qualifying, destroying his car and ending his chronically bad weekend a day early.
