In the Singapore Grand Prix, Lando Norris won his third race of the Formula One season, finishing 20 seconds ahead of Max Verstappen.
Verstappen remains the leader as the driver championship deficit is reduced to 52 points as a result.
By the end of the first lap, Norris was still in the lead. He then started to pull away from Verstappen, and by lap 17, he was ahead by more than 11.5 seconds. But many cars raced wide at Turn 1, creating a chaotic scene behind the leaders at the start. Before pitting on lap 30, Franco Colapinto had divebombed his way into the top 10. For a while, Sergio Pérez found it difficult to get past him.
“He’s very good,” the Red Bull driver said over the radio on Lap 16. “Difficult to pass, Colapinto.”
Early on in the Singapore Grand Prix, it was clear that the undercut was looking powerful. This is the act of a car pitting ahead of others in order to obtain an advantage.
On Lap 19, Lewis Hamilton was one among the first drivers to pit, switching from soft to hard tires. However, he later admitted over the radio that he thought they would run into problems later on and that, by lap 23, he was already having difficulty with the hard tire. Until the race is neutralized, the Singapore Grand Prix is typically a one-stop event.
Norris appeared to be gaining a significant advantage, thus it appeared like it would be an easy win. However, he started to slow down at lap 30 after reporting over the radio that he had damage to his front wing. But McLaren changed the configuration and replaced the medium tires with the hard compound as he drove into the pits, leaving his front wing unaltered. Later, Norris heard on the radio that it was just a “minor issue, nothing severe.”
Oscar Piastri became the center of attention as the race entered its middle stages. On lap 29, George Russell made a pit stop, and the McLaren driver was lurking behind him. As Verstappen pitted, Piastri started to gain ground on him and moved into second place. However, the McLaren driver could feel his tires wearing out and on lap 39, he finally pitted for hard tires. At a track where overtaking can be challenging, McLaren made a daring move by making a late pit stop. But his tire offset was noticeable.
After the Mercedes pair, Piastri emerged from the pits and quickly overtook Hamilton. He started chasing Russell for the last podium spot, and on Lap 45, as he drove the long route around the Silver Arrow, he executed the overtake at Turn 4.
From there, the race was resolved. After nearly two seconds faster than Verstappen’s last lap, Norris had a near miss when he clipped the wall, the same spot where Russell crashed the year before. Pérez, however, claimed on the radio that he was “bouncing like a kangaroo” and had no traction.
Colapinto was chasing him hard, applying pressure to the Red Bull, but the Williams driver was never able to pass Pérez and finished outside of the points.
In a surprising turn of events, Daniel Ricciardo made his third pit stop in the last few circuits, switching to a pair of soft tires. Norris had the quickest lap of the race at the time, and he was flying. Instead, Ricciardo turned in the fastest lap, denying Norris the opportunity to win a grand slam.
GP: “Your old pal Daniel got the fastest lap at the end there as well.”
Verstappen: “Thank you, Daniel.”#F1 #SingaporeGP
— Luke Smith (@LukeSmithF1) September 22, 2024
Here’s how the top 10 finished:
- Lando Norris
- Max Verstappen
- Oscar Piastri
- George Russell
- Charles Leclerc
- Lewis Hamilton
- Carlos Sainz
- Fernando Alonso
- Nico Hülkenberg
- Sergio Pérez
Top photo: Mark Thompson/Getty Images
