F1 Singapore GP: Norris beats Verstappen for dominant victory

Lando Norris survived two scares with the wall to dominate the Singapore Grand Prix, beating Max Verstappen by 20.9 seconds to close the championship lead to 52 points.

The Briton brushed the wall twice during a crushing victory, first knocking his front wing at Turn 14 after a lock-up ahead of his sole pitstop, but escaped without needed to change it during the switch to hard tyres.

During his hard-tyre stint, Norris later knocked the wall with his rear right at Turn 10, at the same point that he and George Russell knocked it in the closing laps of last year's race.

Neither incident appeared to cause much of an issue, although the former had cut a 25-second lead over Max Verstappen to 21 seconds in the overlap between stops.

Norris had been able to keep the lead into the first corner over Verstappen, and quickly built a one-second lead to ensure the Dutchman could not mount an attack with DRS in the opening laps.

Instructed to build a lead of five seconds "in the mid-teens" on the lap count, Norris completed that request early to gather that margin by lap 11, and then started to put more than a second per lap over his championship rival.

After his minor skirmishes with the wall, Norris settled in during the latter phases and his lead tickled the 30-second mark before being told to "bring the car home".

After turning the pace down and dealing with traffic, Norris crossed the line to clinch his third win of the year - although his fastest lap effort was denied at the end by Daniel Ricciardo's tour on soft tyres.

Verstappen crossed the line 20.9 seconds behind, while Oscar Piastri ensured both McLarens made it onto the podium with third.

Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20, Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W15, George Russell, Mercedes F1 W15, the rest of the field at the start (Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images)

Piastri had gone long on his medium tyres having been stuck behind the Mercedes duo in the early stages, accruing enough of a tyre advantage to dispatch Lewis Hamilton and Russell successively.

Although the aim was to catch Verstappen at the end, the Red Bull driver's pace was too great to overcome for a McLaren 1-2.

Russell finished fourth after batting away a rapidly catching Charles Leclerc at the end, having become the lead Mercedes with an overcut over the soft-starting Hamilton.

Leclerc had also gone long on his tyres and, although was undercut by the out-of-position Carlos Sainz amid the pitstops, the two were asked to swap places and this allowed the Monegasque to chase after the Mercedes duo.

Hamilton had to coax his hard tyres 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-tyre stint keeping Sergio Perez at bay to ensure Haas claimed a valuable two points.

Franco Colapinto was just 1.7s behind Perez at the flag, having earlier run ahead of the Mexican driver.

Kevin Magnussen and Alex Albon were the sole retirees, the Dane suffering lasting effects from his earlier puncture following a brush with the wall, while Albon was out early with an overheating power unit.

F1 Singapore GP Race Results:

Main Information Additional Data Additional Data Driver Info Driver Info

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Main Information Additional Data 1  -  2
Cla	Driver	#		Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Pits	Points	Retirement	Chassis	Engine
1	L. Norris McLaren	4		62	-			1	25		McLaren	Mercedes
2	M. Verstappen Red Bull Racing	1		62	+20.945 20.945	20.945		1	18		Red Bull	Red Bull
3	O. Piastri McLaren	81		62	+41.823 41.823	20.878		1	15		McLaren	Mercedes
4	G. Russell Mercedes	63		62	+1'01.040 1'01.040	19.217		1	12		Mercedes	Mercedes
5	C. Leclerc Ferrari	16		62	+1'02.430 1'02.430	1.390		1	10		Ferrari	Ferrari
6	L. Hamilton Mercedes	44		62	+1'25.248 1'25.248	22.818		1	8		Mercedes	Mercedes
7	C. Sainz Ferrari	55		62	+1'36.039 1'36.039	10.791		1	6		Ferrari	Ferrari
8	F. Alonso Aston Martin Racing	14		61	1 lap			1	4		Aston Martin	Mercedes
9	N. Hulkenberg Haas F1 Team	27		61	1 lap			1	2		Haas	Ferrari
10	S. Perez Red Bull Racing	11		61	1 lap			1	1		Red Bull	Red Bull
11	F. Colapinto Williams	43		61	1 lap			1			Williams	Mercedes
12	Y. Tsunoda RB	22		61	1 lap			1			RB	Red Bull
13	E. Ocon Alpine	31		61	1 lap			1			Alpine	Renault
14	L. Stroll Aston Martin Racing	18		61	1 lap			1			Aston Martin	Mercedes
15	Z. Guanyu Sauber	24		61	1 lap			1			Sauber	Ferrari
16	V. Bottas Sauber	77		61	1 lap			1			Sauber	Ferrari
17	P. Gasly Alpine	10		61	1 lap			1			Alpine	Renault
18	D. Ricciardo RB	3		61	1 lap			3			RB	Red Bull
dnf	K. Magnussen Haas F1 Team	20		57				3		Retirement	Haas	Ferrari
dnf	A. Albon Williams	23		15				2		Overheating	Williams	Mercedes
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