Singapore: the VSC Softs were worth half a second a lap, not the win
Pirelli rates the one-stop Soft-Medium as the best choice. Pace by stint shows where that holds and what it misses.
For Pirelli, the Singapore race is won by the one-stop strategy that runs the Soft and the Medium, neutralisations or not. Max Verstappen follows it to the letter: he starts on the Soft, changes once and reaches the end on the Medium.
The supplier also says the Soft holds long stints and offers more grip than the other compounds. The second Virtual Safety Car puts both points to the test. Charles Leclerc and Kimi Antonelli stop again and go back to the Soft; Verstappen stays out.
In the closing phase Leclerc’s Soft laps at a median of 1:36.132, Verstappen’s Medium at 1:36.630: almost half a second a lap in Ferrari’s favour. Antonelli stays closer to Verstappen, 0.268 s quicker. Oscar Piastri, who stopped a second time outside the VSC, fits the only new set of the three and laps 0.425 s faster.
Leclerc’s and Antonelli’s Softs were not new: they already had 3 laps on them. Piastri’s new set is no faster than the used ones, at least with the cars each driver found ahead.
The windows do not fully match. Verstappen’s median starts from lap 34, before the VSC, Leclerc’s from lap 41. Restricted to the laps after the VSC, Verstappen’s median stays practically the same.
On the result, Pirelli’s verdict holds: Verstappen wins with one stop, and Leclerc, faster at the end, finishes 7.335 seconds behind. The lead built before the VSC is enough to cover what the Soft gives back afterwards.
On pace, though, the claim needs refining, because in the closing laps the second-stop Soft is the fastest tyre on track. The comparison holds for this race and these windows: it does not measure the traffic each driver met, and it does not say how things would have gone with a VSC at another moment.