Why Sainz’s Singapore F1 success was not just about DRS genius

Carlos Sainz ended Red Bull's season-long winning streak with a sublime display of tactical awareness at the Singapore Grand Prix, using Lando Norris to hold back the Mercedes pairing. But as Jonathan Noble explains, there was much more to this victory than DRS trickery

Carlos Sainz’s victory in the Singapore Grand Prix was a driving and tactical masterclass, as he used every tool in his repertoire to keep the defensive line intact behind him as Mercedes tried to break through.

His intelligence in keeping Lando Norris within DRS range, even dropping back after the McLaren lost some ground fighting with George Russell, got all the praise it duly deserved from both within and outside his team.

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Author Jonathan Noble

Jonathan Noble is Motorsport.com’s Formula 1 editor. Having graduated from University of Sussex Jonathan worked for sports news agency Collings Sports reporting on F1, F3, touring cars and other sports, with articles appearing in The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, Reuters, Autosport and other publications. In 1999 he moved to Haymarket Publishing to become a senior editor at Autosport Special Projects, and one year later he became Autosport’s grand prix editor. In 2015 he moved to Motorsport Network, becoming the F1 editor for Motorsport.com. He is also a member of the Guild of Motoring Writers, and sits on the FIA Media Council.

Jonathan has won multiple awards for journalism - in 1991 he was the winner of the Guild of Motoring Writers’ Sir William Lyons’ Award for young journalists, in 2010 he was awarded the Outstanding Individual accolade for consumer journalism in the Haymarket wards, in 2011 he won Haymarket’s Scoop of the Year, and in 2018 he was awarded a prestigious Medaglia d’Oro at the Lorenzo Bandini Awards for his contribution to F1 journalism.