By Robert Haile

After an hour delay due to heavy rain the race started on a damp Marina Bay Street Circuit as Sergio Perez took advantage and the race.

Though the Mexican driver could fall foul of the Safety Car Regulations as he is under investigation.

Race winner Perez said: “I am so happy to get this victory for me and my Team, it means a lot to me. I haven’t been on the podium the last couple of races but I was always working under the radar and making big noises behind the scenes, so I am super proud of the performance today.

“Mentally it was tough and you had to stay alert for the whole race. It was super tricky in the conditions out there today and people underestimate how difficult it is to drive in those, going through the final sector was so hard.

“There was a bit of miscommunication with the safety car I think, he was going really fast in places where I couldn’t keep up with him and then slowing where I could go fast.

“We were driving on slicks in the wet trying to keep the temperature and that is difficult. When they told me I was under investigation I just pushed like qualifying for 15 laps to get as big a gap as possible to Charles.”

Perez took the lead from Charles Leclerc as Carlos Sainz passed Lewis Hamilton into the first corner.

While champion Max Verstappen went back from seventh to twelfth, he was making his way back through the grid when Nicholas Latifi squeezed Zhou Guanyu into the barrier bringing out the first Safety Car.

In the battle for fourth in the constructors championship Alpine suffered a set back as Fernando Alonso stopped bringing out a Virtual Safety Car during which George Russell came in and was the first driver to swap to medium compound tyres as the rest of the field stayed on the intermediates.

Russell improved and the other drivers came in and swapped for slick tyres with Yuki Tsunoda going straight into the barrier bringing out the Safety Car for the second time.

The McLaren duo were having a good race siting fourth and sixth at the restart where Perez continued to lead as Verstappen locked up trying to pass Leclerc and ended up dropping back to last place.

Russell and Mick Schumacher came together picking up a puncture as they went through turn one.

Time would sort out the Grand Prix as the race hit its two hour mark Perez held off Leclerc for 26 minutes to take his fourth career victory.

Leclerc finished second with Sainz third as McLaren’s Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo took fourth and fifth.

Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll finished sixth with Verstappen seventh and Sebastian Vettel eighth for Aston as Hamilton came home in ninth after locking up and dropping back.

Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri rounded out the points places in tenth as Valtteri Bottas, Kevin Magnussen, Schumacher and Russell were the last of the runners.

Formula One stays in the east and travels to Japan and the Suzuka International Racing Course on October 7-9 with Verstappen looking to tie up the driver’s championship at Hondas home Grand Prix.