Sep 22, 2024, 10:46 ET
The Englishman crushed the Marina Bay circuit against Max Verstappen, who was unable to do anything to keep up with him and had to settle for second place. Oscar Piastri completed McLaren’s 1-2.
Lando Norris and the rest. That’s how the Singapore GP, the 18th round of the 2024 season, held on the Marina Bay street circuit, can be defined. It was an overwhelming start to finish, with Max Verstappen resigned to second place with no chance of more. And the Dutchman was even happy, because he minimized the damage on a track that is a terrible fit for his Red Bull. It is only the third podium for the three-time champion in the small Asian state and he has never climbed to the top step.
The Englishman achieved his third victory in the World Cup. AP
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Norris had no rivals. In fact, the only rival he had in the 62 laps of the race was himself.. The success allowed the Englishman to reduce the gap with Max in the title fight by seven points to 52 (331 to 279). The Dutchman continues to enjoy the huge cushion of points he achieved in the first ten races of the year and with that he is able to withstand the drop in his RB20. The distance is large, but, beyond the gap, Lando continues to show that he is far from being able to fight against a bird of prey like Verstappen.
Norris won by 20 seconds over Verstappen. Despite the big difference he had, he had moments of lack of concentration that left him against the ropes. A long pass block that miraculously did not end up against the wall, a brush against the wall and another long pass when he turned around Franco Colapinto formed the combo of errors by Norris, a high count for the comfort he was handling. And a huge accumulation if his objective is to fight for the 1 of the year.
Pressure management remains Norris’s unfinished business. In Singapore, he put the pressure on himself.“Sometimes you just relax too much. It’s difficult. It was easy to lock the tyres like I did. I wanted to push, to have the biggest lead possible, not just win by a second. Oscar got on the podium and drove well. It was a good day for the team,” Norris analysed. “It was an incredible race. I was too close to the mark, but I think apart from that we controlled very well. The car was incredible. I was able to push, we flew through the race and at the end I was able to relax,” he concluded after securing his third F1 victory, the second from pole position.
Will Norris be able to overtake Verstappen? First, he will have to turn off the errors. And hope that Red Bull does not recover. The Milton Keynes team has three weeks to try to regain the balance lost in the RB20. The three-time champion sent a direct message to the team’s bosses, the umpteenth since he entered the fall that has seen him go eight races without winning, his longest streak since 2020: “I was alone the whole race. I tried to do my best, I tried to manage my pace. On a weekend that we knew we were going to have difficulties, being second is fine, although we are not happy with it and we will have to bring more. That is what we will try to do. We have to turn the situation around and not always finish behind Norris.”
Oscar Piastri completed the podium and secured McLaren’s 1-3 thanks to the team’s strategy that allowed the Australian to beat the two Mercedes by stopping later and overtaking them on fresher tyres. The Woking team is increasingly leading the Constructors’ Cup (41 points ahead of Red Bull). Checo Pérez’s low points (one point for tenth place) did not help. For the Austrians, defending Verstappen’s position, in the current situation, seems to be the only achievable goal.
In the battle between the teams, Ferrari saved its skin with Charles Leclerc’s fifth place and Carlos Sainz’s seventh. La Rossa is only 34 points behind Red Bull, the once unbeatable team that continues to lose ground.
SINGAPORE GP RESULTS
DRIVERS CHAMPIONSHIP
CONSTRUCTORS CUP
