McLaren’s Lando Norris wins the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix, and reduces the gap to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by seven points in the overall championship standings.
The Brit qualified on pole, and proved to critics that he can start well and maintain his lead even into T1 on lap one. This is after he failed to convert his five previous pole positions into race leads. Even if he did lose the lead, the McLaren car appeared to have sufficient pace to retake it again on track anyways. Verstappen never made a significant impression at the front once the lights went out.
This is a stark contrast to the Red Bull that we saw at the start of the season. Verstappen was quick enough to comfortably stay ahead of the final podium position, which actually saw several different drivers challenging for P3 at various stages of the race.
Expecting a safety car early on, Mercedes opted to start Hamilton on a set of soft tyres. In theory, the additional traction should give him the best opportunity to get past the McLaren and Red Bull in front of him. However, that failed to materialise, as the two front runners appeared to have an inherent pace advantage despite their harder rubber.
Russell very quickly started to challenge Hamilton, as the latter’s tyres started to degrade. With no safety car at this stage of the Grand Prix, and with the seven-time World Champion’s tyres quickly fading, they had no choice but to pit him for a set of hard tyres – much earlier than most of the cars he was racing.
Piastri had an unremarkable first couple of laps, but it was likely that this was just the Australian slowly bringing his tyres up to temperature. Once they were ready, he passed both Mercedes cars with relative ease, assisted by DRS into T7. He gradually pulled away from the Mercs, and rounded out the podium.
Ferrari’s qualifying mishaps and a surprising uptick in pace for Haas meant that the Italian team found both their drivers behind not only Hulkenburg, but Tsunoda and Alonso too. Sainz was lucky to escape a gearbox penalty after his Q3 crash, and running wide in T2 on his flying lap cost Leclerc to lose his lap time.
A fast starting Colapinto pushed Sainz further back into the back, losing more time as he tried to fight back. Leclerc was stuck behind Hulkenburg early on too, as the front five gradually pulled away from the pack.
In the closing stages, Haas’ Kevin Magnussen set a fastest lap, taking one point away from Norris. In response, and with old tyres at this stage, the Brit managed to put a quick lap together, retaking said point. But there was another plot twist – VCARB opted to call Daniel Ricciardo in for a set of softs to challenge for the point.
The Aussie got it, denying the McLaren driver the extra point and assisting his former Red Bull teammate. Rumour has it that Ricciardo has already driven his last race, with Liam Lawson set to replace him after the four-week ‘autumn’ break. No official confirmation has been given by either Red Bull or VCARB however.
Norris wins, from Verstappen and teammate Piastri. Russell fends off Ferrari’s Leclerc, who had a significant tyre advantage. Hamilton, Sainz, Alonso, Hulkenburg and Perez complete the list of points scorers.
This is the very first running of the Singapore Grand Prix with no safety car appearance, and it continues 2024’s eight race safety car-free streak, with Bernd Maylander making his last on-track appearance in June’s Spanish Grand Prix.
You May Be Interested In: Formula One for the Layman – 2024 Singapore Grand Prix Edition
