“A lucky guy,” Christian Horner smiled half-irony as Lando Norris took a convincing win in Singapore. Norris was a bit lucky, yes, but not just for the reason the Red Bull boss wanted to convey.
Horner was referring to the two collisions with the barriers that Norris survived to cut Max Verstappen’s world championship lead to 52 points with 180 to go. But he may have been referring to the dominant McLaren that should guide Norris to the title this year.
Today’s maths doesn’t support the Briton’s enviably strong position. He took just seven points off second-placed Verstappen before – once again – raising the question of how long he’ll stay in Formula 1 if he continues to be mired in politics, such as being given the F1 equivalent of community service for taking an oath at a press conference, as he was on Friday.
But he’s not going anywhere anytime soon. And finishing second in each of the year’s seven excellent races and three sprints is enough to claim a fourth title, whatever happens.
Lando Norris won the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix ahead of championship rival Max Verstappen
Norris finished with a huge lead of 20.9 seconds over three-time world champion Verstappen
Verstappen’s lead in the drivers’ championship has now been reduced from 59 to 52 points
But the facts are that Norris took pole by more than two tenths and then led every 62 under the lights. He was running a race of his own. His margin of victory was 20.9 seconds. It could have been much more. Yet he passed everyone but the top seven.
His car is as superior to the rest as Verstappen’s Red Bull was at the start of the season. Happy, happy, happy Lando.
His nerve-wracking scrapes, this statement-of-intent victory, should have shaken the groupthink among motorsport connoisseurs, to which Verstappen surely clings. He may well do so; he remains the marginal favourite for the points on the scoreboard, as well as his resilience and brilliance, two qualities on ample display here. If you doubt that, consider his team-mate Sergio Perez, who was among the stragglers and finished 10th.
Verstappen has failed to win the last eight races, with his last first place coming in June at the Spanish GP.
This was Norris’ third victory this season, the British driver having previously won the Miami Grand Prix and the Dutch Grand Prix.
This brings us to how the title could still be decided. If McLaren is to maintain its authority, it will depend on who can assert themselves between the 26-year-old Verstappen and the 24-year-old Norris.
Will it be Oscar Piastri, Norris’ teammate? He finished third after winning last week. Will Perez intervene in Verstappen’s favour? And what about the Ferraris merging, something they failed to do yesterday after a poor qualifying day?
There is also the question of whether Norris will hold his own in this fight.
He seemed more relaxed last weekend, the recent irritability of pressure having subsided. A pirate performance in Azerbaijan from 15th on the grid a week earlier seemed to have boosted his morale, which can be fragile behind a cheerful exterior.
Norris nearly ruined his own race when he nearly hit the wall twice before relaying his concerns to his team
Whatever thoughts were penetrating his helmet, his mind was clear enough to allow him to do something he had never done before, namely complete a first lap that he had started on pole and was still leading. Five times he had tried. Five times he had failed.
Yesterday, however, a little pick-me-up. He showed great speed from the start. Everyone else sucked in his fumes at the first bend, a short sprint from the finish line. Who knows how much that will improve his psychological state.
He was soon on a roll. On lap eight, he was told to build up a five-second lead by lap 15. That was the margin he needed to stay ahead if Verstappen, who both started and finished a position behind him, undercut him.
No problem. Norris, with plenty of power under his bonnet, reached the required lead at the end of lap 11. He was a second faster per lap and was only galloping.
On lap 25 Norris’ lead was 20 seconds. Another gallop.
Norris is now close to the current world champion and everything is at stake for the last six Grand Prix races
Verstappen came into the pits after 29 laps. It was a somewhat slow stop, at 3.0 seconds, by the usually agile Red Bull pit crew.
It was now that Norris first hit the wall, at Turn 14, after entering the right-hand corner too hard. He radioed that he was concerned that his front wing might be damaged. There was a bruise, but nothing serious, he was told.
Only his own faltering concentration in the sweaty 30ºC heat – or the demands of isolation laps, as he later claimed – could defeat him, and on lap 45 he again scraped his papaya car, this time the right rear tyres kissing the wall.
“Once is usually a wake-up call,” Horner explained in his treatise on happiness. “If you hit it twice and it’s OK, then someone’s smiling at you.”
“Full concentration now,” race engineer Will Joseph implored. “Take a sip.” Norris doesn’t normally drink water while riding.
Lewis Hamilton started second but finished sixth, overtaken by his Mercedes teammate George Russell (fourth) and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc (fifth)
Joseph said later, “Just calm down. Just take this car home.”
He did. ‘Lovely jubbly,’ Norris exclaimed. ‘Great car all weekend. Thanks everyone. One of many others. Let’s keep pushing.’
Verstappen, from his perspective, at least managed to limit the damage, as he was also stuck in a race and Piastri was nowhere near.
One final intrigue. Daniel Ricciardo, in what may be his final Formula 1 race before being replaced by New Zealander Liam Lawson, stripped Norris of the fastest lap bonus point at the last minute, raising eyebrows as he drives for Red Bull’s sister team, RB.
“Thank you, Daniel,” said Verstappen, “because every point counts now.”
