Lando Norris dominated the streets of Marina Bay to take his third win of the season at this weekend's Singapore Grand Prix and reignite his title charge against Max Verstappen.
Norris, just pipped Verstappen to pole position in Saturday's qualifying, and led the field away on Lap 1. The McLaren driver has recently been under fire for his struggles to maintain positions on the opening lap, but was able to stay ahead of rival Verstappen into the first corner and dominate the race.
Williams rookie Franco Colapinto made a brave move under the breaks into turn one overtaking three cars to put him just behind Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc. An angered Alex Albon came on the radio saying “Franco just dive bombed! What is he doing!” but took back his comments after seeing replays post race.
Hamilton slipped into third place after Mercedes opted to start him on soft tires. With overtaking opportunities limited on the tight streets of Singapore, taking opportunities early on in the race was crucial.
For the better part of the first stint the grid saw very little shakeup until Mercedes became the first front running team to pit. Russell was pulled into the pits on lap 21, opting McLaren to extend Piastri’s stint.
After stretching out a comfortable lead in the first stint Norris locked a wheel on the back straight and came within inches of the wall. This mistake became the first of a few close encounters with the barriers. Two laps later on lap 31 McLaren pitted Norris for a set of hard tyres.
Eventually, Piastri pitted on lap 39 but the Australian was left with some work to do after being jumped by both Mercedes. However, only one lap later Piastri caught up to the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and pulled off a clean around the outside overtake on the Brit. On lap 45 Piastri caught up to the other Mercedes of George Russel to pull off another move bringing him up to third.
The same lap Norris had an additional contact with the wall, brisking the outside on the way into turn 10. He was lucky to get away without any damage.
Five laps later Leclerc passed Hamilton for fifth after Mercedes continued to fall down the order in the final stint.
Approaching the final few laps RB decided to pitted Daniel Ricciardo to attempt a fastest lap in what is rumored to be his last race at the team. Ricciardo came across the line with a time of 1:34.486 taking a point off of Norris; something that didn’t go unnoticed by McLaren and the wider F1 community.
After the race McLaren team principal Andrea Stella was quoted saying “This needs to be definitely addressed. But at no point, I have elements now to say Racing Bulls went for the fastest lap to support the Red Bull. I just find it a little...how to say...peculiar.”
Norris ended up taking the win ahead of Max Verstappen and teammate Oscar Piastri. A dominant performance from the Brit that is sure to give him confidence going into the last six races.
Formula 1 returns to the America’s for the United States Grand Prix in Austin in three weeks.
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