A motor race under the lights in extreme heat and humidity takes place around Marina Bay, Singapore. 19 race cars navigate the narrow streets of the Singapore Grand Prix while fighting for a win in the pinnacle of motorsport. This race added many layers to the long-term drama of the world championship title.
Lando Norris won in a dominant display, gapping second place and championship leader, Max Verstappen, by 21 seconds. More drama ensued in the lower positions, where Ferrari had a very shocking result with their drivers finishing fifth and seventh after a poor pre-race qualifying. During Daniel Ricciardo’s final race he stole the fastest lap point from Norris giving Verstappen yet another advantage. Lando held the lead from the start, a big deal since he has struggled with holding the lead throughout the year. Verstappen’s Red Bull RB20 has not performed well this season in comparison to Norris’s McLaren MCL38, this contributed to Norris’s win. To add salt to the wound, Norris talked about how he managed the perfect win.
“The car was good, the car was great in the first half but I mean I feel like it’s also a track where you have to manage the tires well,” Norris said. “You have to not make mistakes. It’s kind of a track where who can push it up to the walls more consistently and more often [succeeds] and I feel like that’s what I did today so um it’s been an amazing weekend so, very very happy to end it off like this.”
Verstappen admitted that his car’s pace could not match the McLarens. Over the span of the season, McLaren improved their cars and brought more upgrades than Red Bull, slowly closing the gap, and now finally overtaking them.
“Quite quickly I realized that yeah it was not possible to follow and I just tried to do my own race and yeah just keep my momentum going even though, of course, it was not the same pace as, Lando,” Verstappen said.
Verstappen also mentioned the difficulties with his tires that settled the race for him in P2. The hot weather and tight turns had an immense effect on his tires, degrading them more than Verstappen would have liked.
“First stint was a bit difficult, I had a lot of rear deg [degradation], a lot of sliding, I think that just cost me a lot of lap time,” Verstappen said. “Then the second stint was a little bit more competitive it’s still not of course where we want to be but I think overall yeah it was it was a bit more promising but we still need to figure out, of course, the base, the long run base, a bit more…we know that, of course, this track is not ideal for us but I think even on a normal track at this stage, we still can’t fight them [McLaren] you know?”
Charles Leclerc, who finished fifth, felt Ferrari had a good recovery. Ferrari suffered a horrendous pre-race qualifying session that set them back to positions ninth and 10th place on the starting grid.
“I look only today, I feel like we’ve done a really really really good job,” Leclerc said.
Carlos Sainz, Leclerc’s Ferrari teammate, had a similar response. Sainz felt that they recovered well from the pre-race qualifying as well as their difficult race start.
“Damage limitation for us today [from qualifying yesterday] especially after a very tricky start where we had to take avoiding action to a Williams,” Sainz said.
Daniel Riccardo finished a low position of P18 on his farewell race. He responded in an emotional tone when asked about his feelings towards the sport. A valid reaction after spending almost 14 years in Formula One working with flagship teams like Red Bull, McLaren and Renault.
“Yeah, a lot of, a lot of emotions because um, look, I’m aware it could, it could be it, and yeah I think it’s also just exhaustion after the race so there’s, so much I don’t know, just like a flood of many emotions, and feelings, and exhaustion,” Ricciardo said.
So how does this race affect the championship? Norris has closed the gap to Verstappen with just 52 points between the two from the previous 59. A huge number to close down for Norris, but with Red Bull losing many of their high-ranking members like Jonathan Wheatley and Adrian Newey, and Verstappen not winning the past eight races in a row, these small gains will have Lando catching up by the time we head down to Abu Dhabi, the season finale, in six races time. And what a season finale it could result in if this drama keeps up.
