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Lando Norris won his third Formula One race of the season at the Singapore Grand Prix, beating Max Verstappen by 20 seconds.
This reduces the gap in the drivers' championship to 52 points, with Verstappen still in the lead.
Norris was still in the lead at the end of the first lap and began to increase his lead over Verstappen, leading by over 11.5 seconds by lap 17. However, there was some chaos at Turn 1 behind the leaders at the start, sending a number of cars off the track. Franco Colapinto stormed back into the top ten, staying there until he pitted on lap 30. Sergio Pérez struggled to pass him for a while.
“He's very good,” the Red Bull driver said over the radio on lap 16. “It's hard to overtake, Colapinto.”
The early stages of the Singapore Grand Prix revealed the power of undercutting – pitting before the car in front to gain an advantage.
Lewis Hamilton was one of the first frontrunners to pit, changing from soft to hard tyres on lap 19. But he later said over the radio that he felt he would have trouble later in the race, adding that he was already struggling on the hard tyre by lap 23. The Singapore Grand Prix is traditionally a one-stop race unless the race is abandoned.
Norris had built up a big lead and looked like he'd hold on, but around lap 30 he radioed in to say he'd had some damage to his front wing and was beginning to slow. But when he pitted, McLaren didn't change the wing – they just tweaked the set-up and swapped the medium tyres for hard compound tyres. Norris was later told over the radio that it was “a small issue, but nothing serious”.
As the race reached the middle stage, all eyes were on Oscar Piastri. George Russell pitted on lap 29, with the McLaren driver lurking behind him. Piastri began to take laps from Verstappen, and moved up to second place when Verstappen pitted. However, the McLaren driver felt his tyres falling, and finally changed to hard tyres on lap 39. It was a late pit stop, and a bold move by McLaren on a track where overtaking is difficult. But the offset of his tyres was noticeable.
Piastri emerged from the pits behind the Mercedes duo and quickly passed Hamilton, he began to chase Russell for the final podium position, making a long detour around the Silver Arrows to overtake Russell at Turn 4 on lap 45.
The race settled down from there: Norris nearly crashed into the wall in the same place Russell did last year, but then set the fastest lap soon after, nearly two seconds faster than Verstappen's previous lap, while Perez reported over the radio that he had no traction and was “bouncing like a kangaroo”.
Colapinto was close behind Pérez and putting pressure on the Red Bull, but the Williams driver was ultimately unable to overtake Pérez and finished outside the points.
In a surprising final lap of the race, Daniel Ricciardo pitted for a third time in the final laps to switch to soft tyres. Ricciardo was driving well and Norris had set the fastest lap of the race at that point. Ricciardo instead set the fastest lap, ruining Norris' chances of a first Grand Slam.
📻 GP: “Your old friend Daniel also set the fastest lap at the end.”
📻 Verstappen: “Thanks, Daniel.”#F1 #SingaporeGP
— Luke Smith (@LukeSmithF1) September 22, 2024
The top 10 results are:
- Lando Norris
- Max Verstappen
- Oscar Piastri
- George Russell
- Charles Leclerc
- Lewis Hamilton
- Carlos Sainz
- Fernando Alonso
- Nico Hulkenberg
- Sergio Perez
This is a developing story.
Top photo: Mark Thompson/Getty Images
