Norris cleared Singapore despite two scares and continued to chip away at Verstappen

Landau Norriswith such a great car, crushed a Max this Sunday Verstappen who never had a choice. No fighting. Lando Norris won the Singapore GP, the third victory of his racing careerall of them this season, making the most of their pole position and a car that is on another planet at Marina Bay.

RACE RESULTS IN SINGAPORE

Lando Norris beat Verstappen by at least 20 seconds, possibly more. Devastating. Third was Oscar Piastri, who started 5th and extended his first set of tires to the maximum, managed to get behind Russell on the new rubber to take the podium away from him. Another example that says it all about how fast McLaren was this Sunday, where it couldn’t do anything Russell (4th), or a Hamilton (6th) with poor tire management caught at the end by Leclerc (5th), who finished put pressure on George but no luck.

That battle for the podium and fourth place was the most exciting part of the day. Because of the height there is no race, nothing to do. The Singapore Circuit can be called ‘No Fight’ now. And this Sunday’s event is one of two sides of what is usually this track.

In a narrow circuit, between the walls, so demanding for the drivers, the possibility of a safety car is high and that can lead to crazy races. But if nothing else, it becomes a perfect procession for taking a Sunday nap. In fact, the event coincided with a LaLiga Getafe-Leganés match. Look at how soporific the race is in the fight for victory, there could be more excitement in that Madrid derby.

Norris didn’t mind the lack of action. The Englishman, with an infinitely superior car, this time he managed to win his second race of 6 where he started from pole in F1. Whenever he first started before this Sunday, he was overtaken in the first meters. But this time, the difference between the clean part of the track and the dirty one Max Verstappen couldn’t test.

Norris gave no options with a ‘rocket’

That was the reigning champion’s best option, to try to pass the Briton at turn 1 and widen between the walls of Marina Bay to block him. Lando avoids going through a bad situation with a good start and dedicates himself to managing the wheels. His car this Sunday was the closest to a rocket.

The best example of this was what happened on lap 9. His engineer asked Norris about the speed he was doing and how much room he needed to push harder. “More or less, I’m at 6 speed”. That means I’m saving tires. “Use some of your remaining speed to increase your advantage to 5 seconds on Verstappen”they asked him. All said and done: he hit the accelerator and in the next turn he did the fastest lap and was more than 4.5 seconds behind.

In a turn and a half he reached the goal set for him to protect himself from a possible previous stop by Max. And from there, Norris started hammering. After just 3 laps he was 7.5 seconds ahead of Max When Verstappen decided to stop on lap 30, the reigning champion was already 22 seconds behind Lando.

In Singapore, which is very close to the walls and in the most difficult event for the pilots’ physique due to the 75% humidity and heat, where the pilots have no rest and usually lose 4 kilograms of fluid, it usually does not take of nothing. for granted, especially a safety car can change everything. But at the stop, any ‘Saferty Car’ they wanted could now enter, which Norris, with over 10 seconds to spare, did so.

Norris faced disaster

He is the only one who can lose in this race. But he has plenty of room for error. I just have to manage. Therefore, Notably, Lando was on the brink of disaster on lap 29, before Max stopped. The Englishman went wide at turn 14, blocking the rubber and inches away from the most terrifying taunt. He was about to touch the wall with his front wing, break it and lose a race that was his from the start. Not necessarily a mistake, but luckily for him, it didn’t make him resentful. After this, he stopped and continued his escape to an undisputed victory.

That’s not all. On lap 45, despite his massive cushion, he touched the inside wall with the right rear tire in a clear miscalculation. And when he went around Colapinto, despite the team asking him to calm down, he overbraked again. He played with fire. He is lucky that his car is so good and Verstappen is worlds away. He got that victory despite 3 scares.

Verstappen minimized the damage in the title fight

However, the big winner of the weekend was Max Verstappen. On the day that Norris crushed and did not disappoint, on a track opposite his Red Bull, he achieved an excellent second place which saved what could have been a terrible weekend for him. All this, thanks to the good progress Red Bull showed on Saturday after a bad Friday and the enormous ability to maximize its chances in the decisive moment of Q3, taking advantage of the doubts generated by a final red flag to bring it back. put it second. That gave him 2nd place in the race, where he had no choice against Lando, but where he also didn’t give them to Piastri on his way back.

That second place must taste like glory to Verstappen. Norris gained a lot of points this weekend, but in the end, Max minimized the losses and only lost 7 points to the lead. In 59 where he arrived with respect to Lando with 7 races remaining, he left Singapore with a 52 point lead with 6 appointments remaining after the Red Bull ‘B’ team removed his fastest lap in last lap to Lando with Ricciardo.

It is not impossible for Norris, but we have to see if with the arrival of more normal tracks like Austin, Red Bull behaves better and it allows Max to have more options to not suffer against a Lando forced to sweep.

Sainz, 7th and Alonso, 8th

Carlos Sainz, who started 10th due to his accident in Q3, recovered to 7th position taking advantage of a different strategy: He was the first to stop in the pits, very early, on lap 14, and that allowed him to gain places when some of his rivals changed tires. He was left in 7th place behind Leclerc (6th) and ahead of Fernando Alonso who finished work, making possible again what seemed impossible only a few days ago.

The Asturian achieved an amazing 7th place in qualifying in a car that didn’t even make it past Q1 and A day later, he aimed to score points between the eyebrows on a track opposite his car due to its poor traction and braking stability.. The man from Oviedo first wanted to try to attack Hülkenberg at the start to be 6th, but he tried from the outside in the dirt and went wide. Then, in a car with little speed, he tried to power through the first set of tires by taking Hülkenberg’s DRS, to defend himself from Leclerc. lHe made the Monegasque desperate: “This is frustrating. How many more laps will it be like this?”

Finally, Alonso finished 8th, taking the place from Nico by stopping earlier in the pits, but giving approach to Leclerc and Sainz. Good 8th place to achieve a goal his team considered impossible on Thursday. He did it again, as in Zandvoort and Baku, this time, with a car in which Stroll could only be 14th.