It was a shame to lose a position to Sebastian so early on but there was not a lot I could do as we were both flat out. I should have been able to hold the line but I just couldn’t match his speed. My only real chance to win was at the start, unfortunately it was a bit all over the place and I knew my chance had gone. Luckily the team had me on a great strategy and therefore managed to get me back into second place with a brilliant pit stop. When I got close to Lewis due to back markers I never really thought the pass would be possible. It’s hard to overtake here so I didn’t want to take the risk. It was also slightly unfair how he had been held up by drivers not getting out of the way. I had a few driveability issues again behind the Safety Car and pulling away from the pit stop was dreadful, but in the end we managed it well and got the result we wanted. After the way the car has felt at certain points this weekend, qualifying on the front row and taking second place today is an amazing result.

In the end, the race was a bit as we expected but we hoped for some sort of ultimate strategy. We tried something different by going long on the Hypersoft and we had good pace but a street circuit is only really great if you are on pole, otherwise it’s not only hard to overtake but even to follow. Qualifying is so important here and the race was really lost yesterday. I could catch Kimi, I would stay close to him for a couple of laps and then I would have to back-off. I had the pace to get back on his gearbox but I was never quite close enough to make a move. I really had to hope for a mistake or that Kimi and Valtteri would start tangling and I could capitalise. I got close at Turn 13 on the last lap, but it wasn’t close enough. Street circuits are my favourite tracks to drive but they can also be frustrating. In Monaco I listened to Lewis in seventh place complaining about following closely and now I understand what he was complaining about. I think everyone was in the same boat. I would have loved to fight for something more today but I couldn’t. Last night we spent quite a few hours here trying to figure it all out and I hope in Russia everything will fall into place. We’ll keep fighting, try to get better and maybe we can get a win at a circuit where we don’t expect it. Now I’ll jump into the ice bath and cool down.

It was a very strong drive from Max today to finish second behind Lewis, achieving our ninth consecutive podium in Singapore. On the first lap he dropped a place to Seb in the drag down to Turn 5, but thereafter we managed to make the strategy work in order to jump Ferrari at the pit stop and get Max alongside Seb as he exited the pits. From then on, Max tried to put pressure on Lewis but Lewis always had a tenth or two in hand. Daniel held his position at the start but his race then became about tyre management and trying to go as long as possible in the first stint in order to give him the better Ultrasoft tyre for the second half of the race. Despite setting fastest laps as he caught Bottas and Raikkonen it was impossible to get close enough to overtake and it’s frustrating that sixth was all that was on the table for him today. It’s encouraging to get both cars to the finish for the first time since the French Grand Prix and it’s been a very strong weekend in the garage from all the guys and the Renault technicians to try and solve the driveability issues.