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Blisteringly quick Norris dominates Verstappen to win Singapore GP
Lando Norris has dominated the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix, beating Max Verstappen at the Marina Bay Circuit. At one point, Norris had a half-a-minute lead, and he wasn't challenged. The McLaren driver did have two lucky escapes after contact with the wall. Verstappen limited his title damage by finishing second. Oscar Piastri took home important points for McLaren with his third-place finish.
However, given the situation in the World Championship, McLaren and Norris can be super dominant and still not win the main prize in December. On a weekend when Norris finally utilised the full pace of the McLaren, Verstappen ensured he was behind him. The Dutchman drove well and didn't allow Norris to take a large chunk out of his World Championship lead. With six Grands Prix and three sprints to go in the 2024 season, Verstappen still leads by 52 points. In what could be Ricciardo's final race of his career, the Australian took the fastest lap bonus point to give his former teammate and Red Bull (potentially) one final favour.
Red Bull cannot be relaxed about the Constructors' World Championship. McLaren ensured Piastri got onto the podium, while Sergio Perez failed to recover from his qualifying woes. The Mexican only scored one point with a P10 finish, meaning the Woking-based team extended their lead in the Championship. George Russell got the better of his teammate to finish fourth. Charles Leclerc came 5th, one place ahead of his future teammate Lewis Hamilton. Carlos Sainz rounded out the top seven. Alonso and Hulkenberg also scored points.
What happened during the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix?
Norris and pole positions were synonymous with frustration and letdown for the British driver. Norris failed to maintain the lead through the opening lap in each of his previous pole positions, but there were no such troubles in Singapore. He launched off the line quickly, and Verstappen couldn't even take a lunge at turn one. He then broke the DRS almost immediately and never looked back. Everything was neat and tidy.
In fact, McLaren were able to showcase some blistering pace. Will Joseph, Norris' race engineer, told him to open up a five second gap by around lap 15. Norris obliged and actually ended up smashing the target highlighting the performance shift like never before. On lap 24, Norris had opened up a 19-second lead over Verstappen. The Dutchman was no slouch himself: he had opened up a 12-second lead on Russell.
Despite the dominance, Norris still found a way to make it sweaty. Norris made a mistake at the midpoint and locked up at turn 14. He had a brush with the barrier but didn't damage the front wing. Another centimetre and his work to generate a lead would've been for nothing. After Joseph confirmed there was no significant front-wing damage, Norris got his head down and returned to normal proceedings. He survived further contact with the wall. McLaren then switched their attention to Piastri and got him into P3.
Ferrari didn't really recover from their miserable Q3 performance on Saturday. Both Leclerc and Sainz made places up the leaderboard but couldn't get close to the other front runners. Mercedes did all they could with an off strategy at the start but it didn't allow them to move forward.