SINGAPORE — McLaren’s Lando Norris dominated Sunday’s Singapore Grand Prix for his third victory of the season, making another cut into Max Verstappen’s points lead.
Norris won by an impressive 20.925 seconds over Verstappen, making the latter’s advantage just 52 points with six races remaining.
Despite a few brushes with the wall throughout the 62-lapper, it never hurt the 24-year-old’s pace.
“The car was good. The car was great in the first half,” Norris said. “It’s been an amazing weekend. Happy to end it off like this.
“The car was quick, no doubt about that. Very proud and happy to admit the car’s mega, but you still need someone to get in the car and execute well and not make mistakes and bring it to the front. That’s what I got to do if I want to catch Max.”
It’s now been eight races since Verstappen last won, dating back to the Spanish Grand Prix in June. He started the 2024 season off with seven wins in the first 10 races.
“The first stint was a bit difficult. I had a lot of rear deg, lots of sliding. I think that just costed me a lot of lap time,” Verstappen explained. “The second stint was a little bit more competitive. It’s still not of course where we want to be, but I think overall, it was a bit more promising. But we still need to figure out, of course, race pace, the long run pace a little bit more.
“We need to bring more performance.”
Oscar Piastri gained two spots to finish third, making it a 1-3 finish for the McLaren entries.
“After qualifying, that was the most we could’ve hoped for,” Piastri said. “The pace was strong. Lando has been incredibly quick all weekend, and I think even if I had qualified better, it would’ve been tough this weekend. Obviously, some things to work on, but it’s been a pretty successful weekend all-in-all.”
George Russell and Charles Leclerc rounded out the top five, while Lewis Hamilton, Carlos Sainz, Fernando Alonso, Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez completed the top 10.
In what’s speculated to be his final race, Daniel Ricciardo finished 18th. He ended up pitting three times compared to just once for the leaders but had the fastest lap of the race at the end after putting on soft tires.
“I do feel, let’s say, at peace with it,” said Ricciardo, who’s won eight career F-1 races. “At some point, it’ll come for all of us … I think also, I tried to get back into Red Bull, it didn’t work out, so then I also have to say, ‘Okay, what else am I ultimately doing here and trying to achieve?’
“Let’s say maybe the fairytale ending didn’t happen, but I also have to look back on what it’s been. Fourteen or so years and I’m proud.
“I think when you’ve experienced the highs of winning, you can only fight for P10 for so long. There is nothing like that feeling, and if that no longer is possible, and if it is becoming a little harder – that’s the truth: I was able to do some moments of maybe greatness this year, but it was trickier to do it week in, week out. Maybe that’s [being] 35, maybe that’s the competition’s getting better and better. Who knows?”
Formula 1 returns Oct. 18-20 at Circuit of the Americas – the second of three trips to the United States. Three of the next four races are in North America.