Formula1 News: Norris cruises to easy win in 2024 Singapore GP

Polesitter Lando Norris drove his superior McLaren to a lights-to-flag win in the 2024 Singapore GP on the Marina Bay City Streets by 20.9 seconds over Championship Rival Max Verstappen.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Norris clipped the wall twice, but he was lucky to not break the car, and he cruised to yet another win in the #4 McLaren, the third of his career. That McLaren is the class of the field right now, and they have just delivered back-to-back victories for the first time this year.

“It was an amazing race,” said a tired Norris. “A few too many close calls, I had a couple of close moments in the middle, but it was well managed, I think. I could push, we were flying the whole race. Still tough, I’m a bit out of breath, but a good one.

“It’s not that you are over pushing, sometimes you are chilling too much – maybe it was a bit of both but it was easy to lock the tires, and I wanted the biggest lead possible. I wasn’t taking it easy.”

By finishing second, Max Verstappen in his Red Bull, minimized damage to his point lead, with his lead now down to 52 points with 6 races remaining in the 2024 season. Daniel Riccardo, likely driving his last ever F1 race, pitted for soft tires late and took the fast lap point away from Norris, which could be critical at the end of the year.

“Thank you, Daniel,” Verstappen said over the radio, who knows how crucial that may or may not be by Abu Dhabi in December. He now leads Norris, 331 to 279 points.

“My race was just by myself, do the best I could, manage my own race,” said Verstappen. “On a weekend we knew we were going to struggle, P2 is a good achievement. But now we need to improve, and that’s what we’ll do.

“We just need to keep on trying, and overturn it – not always finishing behind. I’m looking forward to a bit of rest.”

Oscar Piastri in the second McLaren finished in third place, 40 seconds behind teammate Norris. “It was a good race, a good recovery from qualifying – it wasn’t my best afternoon yesterday. Big thank you to the team as clearly the car was exceptional this weekend, and some great points.”

George Russell had Charles Leclerc all over his rear wing for the final 10 laps. Leclerc’s Ferrari had much fresher tires, and Russell did all he could to hang on to 4th place. Russell finished 61 seconds behind Norris, with Leclerc 62 seconds behind.

No Safety Car, which is unusual for the Singapore GP. That meant no respite for the drivers, and it is clear that the heat has taken its toll. Russell was seen resting on some of the other cars as he made his way through parc fermé, those last few laps under extreme pressure from Leclerc taking it out of the Brit out there.

Lewis Hamilton had to coax his hard tires around the race for 45 laps, nonetheless four short of the very early stopping Sainz as the Spaniard lost positions at the start.

Fernando Alonso claimed eighth place, the first of the drivers to be a lap down, while Nico Hulkenberg spent his entire hard-tire stint keeping Sergio Perez at bay to ensure Haas claimed a valuable two points.

Franco Colapinto was just 1.7s behind Sergio Perez at the flag, just losing out on scoring a point for the Williams team.

McLaren is now 41 points clear in the constructors’ too – that gap starting to look fairly healthy, especially when you consider that they have two very in form drivers right now.

Piastri more than played his part today, turning fifth on the grid to third at the flag at a track where overtaking is difficult.

Next up is the USGP at COTA in 4 weeks time, a Sprint weekend, giving Norris more opportunity to outscore Verstappen and close the point gap. It’s 8 points to win the Sprint race plus 25 points for the GP.

Red Bull will be bringing upgrades to try and reverse the tide with McLaren, but the McLaren is so superior, as we saw today – Norris able to gap Verstappen by a second a lap. Hence, even with upgrades, it is doubtful that Verstappen can beat Norris’ McLaren.

The 2024 season is heading onto its home stretch, with two triple-headers to come.

First up is Austin-Mexico-Brazil, and that comes after a sizable break for everyone to catch their breath and work out the best to approach those three. And there are two Sprint weekends yet to run.

Then comes Las Vegas-Qatar-Abu Dhabi, with Qatar also a Sprint event.

2024 Singapore GP Race Results – 62 Laps