By Tom Westbrook
SINGAPORE, Oct 10 (Reuters) – Singapore’s Formula One circuit needs re-designing and lacks entertainment value for a sprint race, Saturday’s sprint winner Max Verstappen and runner-up Lewis Hamilton said after the 20-lap race involved little overtaking.
Rain delayed the start of the inaugural sprint at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, and with overtaking nearly impossible the only drama came in the form of collisions and a record nine retirements.
“I think we shouldn’t host a sprint where you can’t pass,” Red Bull’s polesitter Verstappen told reporters after notching his first victory at the circuit.
“I’m fine, I just do my thing… but it’s not what I like. The overtake mode, it barely does anything here. You don’t really gain a lot on the straights … we need to have a longer straight or like more of a proper hairpin to overtake.”
Mercedes’ George Russell spun into the wall on the final turn of the first lap when he was leading the sprint while the two McLaren cars collided on the last lap while chasing the final podium spot.
SAFETY CAR
In between, six of the 20 laps ran behind a safety car, which is commonplace in Singapore due to crashes, while 11 of the 16 race wins have come from pole position.
“I love the race here, (but) I was just saying to Max, I think they need to change the track to maybe a longer straight somewhere in order to allow it to be truly a great racing circuit,” Hamilton said.
“It’s a great track to drive over a single lap and qualifying, but … there’s like one place, really, that you could potentially get close to overtaking.
“I thought it was fun, but if it was dry, that would have been probably the most boring race for you to have watched. It was the rain, that made it exciting.”
Reduced distance sprint races, with eight points going to the winner, are held on Saturdays with sprint qualifying replacing the usual second Friday practice sessions.
Singapore’s was the sixth and final sprint race this season and it is not on next year’s 10-event sprint calendar, though another city circuit in Monaco is on the schedule — a venue Ferrari’s hometown hero Charles Leclerc said was not ideal.
“I don’t think it makes sense to have any sprint races on city tracks in general,” said Leclerc, who finished third in Singapore’s sprint. “Here or Monaco, I don’t think it adds anything to the weekend.”
(Reporting by Tom Westbrook, editing by Ed Osmond)
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