This win for Lando Norris in the darkness of the Singapore Grand Prix ended with the night lit by fireworks, albeit after what had been a notably less than explosive race was enlivened when the British driver cut it as close as might be dared in twice escaping from glancing blows against the looming walls of Marina Bay.
They were tiny moments that might yet be decisive for Norris, whose dominant victory over his world championship rival Max Verstappen was exactly the relentless grind he has to deliver if he is to take the title fight to the wire. On this form he has every chance to do just that.
As F1 is at pains to remind fans, not every race can be a thriller and Norris’s victory over Verstappen, reducing his deficit in the title race to 52 points, was something of a processional affair. Yet Norris executed with no little composure in the heat and humidity of Singapore for McLaren, leading every lap for a win of almost relentless control marred only when he was reminded that the walls of the street circuit can bite.
How close those fractional losses of focus had been, when he brushed the wall with his front wing first and later clipped it again with a rear tyre, both times escaping without damage, were illustrated in the cooldown room when he was watching the footage back.
As Verstappen and Norris’s teammate Oscar Piastri, who finished third, gasped at a lucky escape, Norris acknowledged the moment. “I actually shit myself,” he observed with relieved laughter. A pleasingly honest assessment given the furore that has dominated the weekend after the FIA president, Mohammed Ben Sulayem, insisted drivers curtail their swearing.
That led to disdain from Lewis Hamilton and Norris, and was followed by Verstappen being given a punishment for swearing in a press conference, after which, with no little glee, the world champion made his own protest in all but refusing to answer questions in the post-qualifying conference.
On the precedent set this weekend, Norris can expect at least a fine, if not possibly some community service to match Verstappen’s, in a pointless and vapid distraction to what is the most exciting season since 2021.
Norris can move on nonetheless with a victory that puts him in position to maintain his focus on the title run-in.
The margin at the end over Verstappen was 21 seconds – at one point it had been as much as 28. It was similar to the pace he displayed at his last win in Zandvoort with Norris unchallenged out front once he had held his lead on the short dash into turn one, in a race uninterrupted by the safety car for the first time in Singapore.
However Verstappen, for all that he was soundly beaten, will also consider this a solid return.
Red Bull had expected to struggle through the high-downforce corners and on the bumps and kerbs of Marina Bay. With a car that has lacked balance and at times has been described as all but undriveable by Verstappen, to return a second place and minimise the points dropped to Norris was considerably beyond what he and the team had anticipated. “On a weekend that we knew we would struggle, to be P2 is a good achievement,” he said.
The form McLaren demonstrated however cannot be ignored. Norris had pace in hand over the Red Bull and demonstrated the car is only improving as the season progresses and they go into the final races holding a clear advantage.
“Definitely the drivers’ championship is still on, the mission is on,” was the bullish assessment of McLaren’s team principal, Andrea Stella, as his team extended their constructors’ championship lead over Red Bull to 41 points.
Certainly the seriousness with which Red Bull are approaching the title run-in was surely indicated when their sister team RB had Daniel Ricciardo, in what is likely to be his last race, make a late pit stop for fresh tyres to claim the fastest lap point from Norris, who until that point had consistently been the quickest man on track. Stella unsurprisingly questioned whether the teams were behaving in an “autonomous manner”.
Verstappen, who has not won for eight races, since the Spanish Grand Prix in June, thanked Ricciardo, more than aware that a single point might make the difference come the final round in Abu Dhabi in December.
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Before which, the next round, the US GP in Austin, is almost a month away. A chance then for Red Bull to seriously address the failings of their car but which will doubtless feel like an age for Norris, who has the bit between his teeth and, for all that he was left a little dizzy with exhaustion when the flag fell, is doubtless raring to go again already.
George Russell was fourth, his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton in sixth and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz in fifth and seventh for Ferrari. Fernando Alonso eighth for Aston Martin, Nico Hülkenberg ninth for Haas and Sergio Pérez 10th for Red Bull.
