Formula 1: Ferrari secure first 1-2 finish since 2017 at unlikely track

Everybody knew Ferrari would be strong in the two races leading up to the Singapore Grand Prix. But the fact that they took their first 1-2 finish since the 2017 Formula 1 season in this race came as a bit of a surprise to everybody.

Entering the Belgian Grand Prix at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps fresh off the summer break, expectations were high for Scuderia Ferrari, which failed to win any of the first 12 races of the 2019 Formula 1 season.

Additionally, they were embarrassed in the final race before the break, the Hungarian Grand Prix, at the Hungaroring, as both Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc finished more than one minute behind race winner Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport.

Entering this race, their most recent victory was still ex-Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen’s victory in the United States Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas late last October.

But the Belgian Grand Prix as well as the ensuing race, the Italian Grand Prix, at Autodromo Nazionale Monza, looked promising for Ferrari due to the focus that their respective tracks put on straight-line speed, an area in which they had excelled throughout the first half of the season despite their lack of race victories.

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Leclerc was able to take advantage of this promising outlook by securing the first two victories of his Formula 1 career in these races.

But in the Singapore Grand Prix at Marina Bay Street Circuit, it was expected that the Scuderia would come back down to earth.

Mercedes entered this race as the heavy favorites with 10 victories in the season’s first 14 races, and they entered it having won each of the last three Singapore Grands Prix. Additionally, their drivers had led 166 of the 180 laps that had been contested at Marina Bay Street Circuit since Ferrari last won the race with Vettel in the 2015 season.

Given the success that Mercedes had earlier in the 2019 season, Marina Bay Street Circuit appeared as though it would suit the strengths of their car.

So when Leclerc took the pole position for this 61-lap race around the 23-turn, 3.146-mile (5.063-kilometer) Marina Bay Street Circuit temporary street circuit in Marina Bay, Singapore and Vettel qualified in third place with Hamilton in between the Ferrari teammates in second, it was a bit of a shock.

Leclerc dominated the race early on, leading its first 19 laps before making his pit stop. Because Ferrari pit Vettel before Leclerc, Vettel ended up ahead of Leclerc following the pit sequence as a result of the undercut, and on lap 31 once everyone had come into the pits, Vettel officially took the lead ahead of Leclerc in second place.

Meanwhile, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen was running in third place ahead of Hamilton in fourth, as Hamilton did not make his pit stop until seven laps after Leclerc and lost all kinds of time because of it.

Even after three late safety car periods and the three ensuing restarts, nobody had anything for the Prancing Horse. Vettel crossed the finish line 2.641 seconds ahead of Leclerc in second place.

A total of 44 races had been contested since Ferrari last recorded a 1-2 finish, as Vettel won the 2017 Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring over Kimi Raikkonen in second place, and they ended this 44-race drought at the least likely of tracks.

For Vettel personally, he even ended a 22-race win drought going back to last year’s Belgian Grand Prix.

Even in the Belgian Grand Prix and the Italian Grand Prix, Ferrari could not place two drivers on the podium much less in first and second place. But in the Singapore Grand Prix, it was as though they had been doing it all year long.

Following Ferrari’s most surprising result of the 2019 Formula 1 season, they are on their first three-race winning streak since the 2008 season. Have they ascended to a level at which they can compete for victories at every track on the schedule?