Sky Sports F1's Martin Brundle reflects on Lando Norris' dominant victory for McLaren at the Singapore Grand Prix, and gives his verdict on the swearing row that has broken out between Max Verstappen and the FIA
Tuesday 24 September 2024 06:08, UK
It was another dominant victory by Lando Norris and McLaren, and reminiscent of his win back in Zandvoort.
He controlled the pace and the race at will, lapping everybody up to Carlos Sainz in 7th.
And Lando has certainly banished the demon of poor starts and failing to lead at the end of the first lap from his previous five pole positions.
His catching and passing so much of the field was partly due to there being no Safety Car deployment or even yellow flags for the first time in Singapore. Being a temporary street circuit, it is lined by walls and has no inner service road, meaning that pretty much any incident requires people and vehicles on track to clear it away. Unlike practice, we didn't even see a giant lizard out for a stroll.
From time-to-time Norris has been unlucky in his F1 career, things haven't always fallen his way, but he had some lucky payback on Sunday evening. A locked brake took him gently into the tyre wall at one point, but it was soft enough not to damage his front wing or drag the car into the barriers. That was a very close call.
Later on, he would clip the same wall jutting out on the approach to turn 10 which destroyed George Russell's car and race last year. A couple more centimetres the wrong way and Norris' race would have been over.
It was a wake up call for him, comfortably out front and no doubt beginning to feel hot and bothered in the car, and so next lap he delivered his fastest of the race to tune his senses back up.
Max Verstappen did a great job to secure second on the grid and keep that to the chequered flag. Red Bull have often struggled at this circuit, and this is the only race on the current calendar he has not won, in fact he has only ever led three laps here. He made the difference and was well satisfied with his result.
I'm not sure why Max is allowing himself to get distracted and dragged into the swearing battle with the FIA.
It's wasted energy and serves no good purpose for him, but he still largely wouldn't answer questions in the press conference post race.
The drivers are not kids I accept, and we know they'll sometimes swear in an attempt to have radio messages not transmitted, and of course they will also say 'don't broadcast our radio calls if you don't like the language'. It may be street language, but they represent themselves, their families, their country, their team, global sponsors, F1 itself, and broadcasters worldwide.
They are icons, champions, opinion formers, and they should think about the responsibility which comes with that privilege, especially with so many young fans watching. Nobody wants to take any energy, emotion, or freedom of speech out of it, but gratuitous swearing away from the heat of the moment is not necessary.
Curiously Mercedes started Lewis Hamilton on soft tyres in the hope he would pass Verstappen into the first corner. That strategy also relied on a relatively early Safety Car, which of course never materialised, and it would consign Lewis to sixth place.
George Russell started in the second Mercedes from fourth on the grid and that's where he would end up an exhausting 62 laps later. It was the first time George has ever scored points in Singapore.
McLaren would leave fifth-place starter Oscar Piastri on track until lap 38 before pitting him for new hard compound tyres. That's some 23 laps after Hamilton, and his pace was comfortably strong enough to pass cars and grab the final podium spot. His imperfect final lap in Q3 had spoiled his chances and cost him likely second place on the grid and in the race. It's difficult to see how he would have beaten Norris on this day.
Charles Leclerc also had a miserable qualifying in ninth place on the grid. His best lap was deleted for track limits but even without that he would only have been seventh despite Ferrari looking like the team to beat on Friday.
Everything seems so knife edge at the moment in getting the tyre surface and core temperatures just right, along with tyre pressure control. He spent an absolute age tucked up behind Fernando Alonso and Nico Hulkenberg, but after a lap-36 pit stop, he was then flying along nicely, dispatching Hamilton and catching right up to the back of Russell for fifth place.
Sainz had smashed his car up badly in qualifying when being a bit too eager on the throttle to commence his charge after a slow out-lap, and a poor start compounded that as he dropped to 12th. He would recover to seventh but some 96 seconds behind the winner.
Eighth would fall to the ever-relentless Fernando Alonso for Aston Martin just a couple of seconds behind, ahead of the impressive Nico Hulkenberg for the relatively tiny Haas team.
Sergio Perez would bring the second Red Bull home in 10th from 13th on the grid for yet another disappointing event. This is a real problem for Red Bull going into 2025.
Their sister team RB kindly brought Daniel Ricciardo in for fresh tyres right at the end and he would deliver the fastest lap of the race which wouldn't earn him a championship point down there, but importantly took it away from Norris and McLaren, who are complaining of unfair tactics with their main rivals having two teams on the grid.
It was Daniel's last race in F1 for a while, and perhaps forever. It was a rather half-hearted and confusing exit from the team perspective. The fans rewarded him with driver of the day as a farewell present, and that leaves him with a tally of 257 starts, 8 wins, 3 poles, and 32 podiums. And an awful lot of smiles and happy fans.
Well done and good luck to him whatever happens next, he's a quality guy and world class driver.
Liam Lawson will take over his RB from Austin and it's his chance to prove he should be on the 2025 grid in either of the two Red Bull teams.
McLaren extended their Constructors' Championship lead to 41 points, and Norris is now 52 behind Verstappen with six GPs and three Sprints remaining. He's going to need to win pretty much everything from hereon and hope that his team-mate and both Ferrari and Mercedes can take points off Verstappen. It's doable.
It wasn't the best of F1 races, the lack of Safety Car closing up the pack or causing strategy chaos played out poorly in that respect. There's a mini break now until Austin, Texas in three weeks time when battles will recommence.
Just six races remain in Formula 1 2024 and the season resumes with the United States Grand Prix in Austin from October 18-20, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream every F1 race and more with a NOW Sports Month Membership - No contract, cancel anytime
