Photo by Qian Jun/MB Media/Getty Images
McLaren takes another step in their fight with Red Bull for the Constructors’ Championship with a Singapore GP double podium
Lando Norris answered another question on Sunday night in Singapore.
His impressive performance Saturday in qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix put him into pole position, but as many quickly pointed out the McLaren driver’s record when starting up front was rather spotty. Throughout his Formula 1 career, he had yet to lead an opening lap when starting in pole position, and that includes his dominant victory at the Dutch Grand Prix last month.
With Max Verstappen starting second, and seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton starting behind him, Norris was going to be under pressure shortly after the lights went out Sunday night. The biggest threat might have been Hamilton, as Mercedes rolled the strategic dice and bolted a set of soft tires to his W15.
As James Hinchcliffe pointed out before the race began on F1TV, drivers cover approximately 170 meters from the starting grid to the first turn in Singapore, and each of those meters might have been on Norris’ mind as he eased his MCL38 into the grid box following the formation lap and waited what must have felt like an eternity for the rest of the grid to line up.
Eventually, the lights went out, and Norris was off like a rocket. Hamilton put Verstappen under pressure, but Norris drove away from the pair of champions, erasing another negative statistic on his career resume. Norris led that lap, and every lap after that, en route to a dominant victory that pulled him to within 52 points of Verstappen in the Drivers’ Championship.
After beginning the season with the “Lando No-wins” moniker, which he shed in emphatic fashion at the Miami Grand Prix, Norris silenced some more doubters with his performance on Sunday.
As for the Constructors’ Championship, with Oscar Piastri finishing third, McLaren banked another 40 points on the weekend. Despite Norris being denied a bonus point for the fastest lap of the race — more on that in a moment — McLaren left Marina Bay behind have increased their lead over Red Bull in that fight to 41 points, more than doubling that 20-point margin when the week began.
“It was an amazing race. A few too many close calls. You know, I had a couple little moments in the middle, but it was well-controlled, I think, otherwise. And the car was mega, so I could push,” said Norris trackside to David Coulthard following the race. “We were flying the whole race, and yeah, at the end, I could just chill. So it was a nice race, still tough. I’m a bit out of breath, but a very fun one.”
“It was a good race, a good recovery from qualifying yesterday. It wasn’t my greatest afternoon yesterday, so to get back to the podium is a great result,” said Piastri. “I feel like we had a really quick car underneath us and a good strategy to get past the Mercedes. So, yeah, big thank you to the team. Clearly, the car was exceptional this weekend and some great points for the whole team.”
Red Bull may take solace in the fact that Singapore has been a difficult circuit for them in the past, like last year when it was the only Grand Prix the team did not win. Verstappen’s second-place finish was perhaps the best-case result for the team, and following a three-week break the grid heads to Austin for the United States Grand Prix, a circuit the team believes will suit the RB20, and its recent upgrades, a bit better.
But McLaren has some favorable circuits remaining as well including Qatar — where they notched a double podium in the 2023 Grand Prix as well as a win for Piastri in the F1 Sprint race last season — as well as Austin and Brazil.
So while Red Bull may still be in the fight, right now McLaren is punching harder.
And answering all the questions they face along the way.
