2024 F1 Round 18 Singapore GP: Norris dominates from pole for his third win of the season, Verstappen second as both McLarens reach the podium

The 2024 F1 Singapore Grand Prix concluded at the Marina Bay Street Circuit on the evening of September 22, Beijing time. Starting from pole, Lando Norris led throughout and completed 62 laps in 1:40:52.571 to claim a dominant third victory of the season. Max Verstappen finished second, 20.945 seconds behind, while Oscar Piastri took third to give McLaren a double podium. Yuki Tsunoda finished 12th, missing out on points.

It was a commanding victory. Norris led every lap and escaped without serious consequences after brushing the wall twice. His win reduced Verstappen’s lead in the drivers’ championship to 52 points, with six Grands Prix and three Sprints remaining. Piastri’s third place was hard-earned too: he stayed out longer than anyone else in the opening stint, then used fresher tyres to pass both Mercedes cars late in the race and complete McLaren’s comeback to a double podium. The team’s advantage over Red Bull in the constructors’ standings grew to 41 points.

Mercedes had a mixed night. George Russell resisted a fierce late challenge from Charles Leclerc, who had started ninth, to hold fourth. Lewis Hamilton, starting third, gambled on soft tyres but gained neither position nor pace. He pitted on lap 17, lost ground through the pit-stop cycle and was then overtaken on track, eventually finishing only sixth. Carlos Sainz limited Ferrari’s losses: starting 10th, he stopped early on lap 13 and used an aggressive undercut to move ahead of several cars from 12th before finishing seventh, while Leclerc took fifth. Fernando Alonso finished eighth to secure four points for Aston Martin, with Nico Hülkenberg ninth and Sergio Pérez 10th, adding a solitary point for Red Bull.

Tsunoda endured another difficult start. From eighth on the grid, he reacted slowly and lost three places on the opening lap to fall to 11th, never returning to the points. He chased Franco Colapinto hard after switching to soft tyres late on but finished 12th, 2.5 seconds behind. The VCARB 01’s recurring weakness at the start had become a persistent problem for the team. Like Hamilton, team mate Daniel Ricciardo started on softs, without the intended result. A third pit stop near the end gave him fresh tyres to set the fastest lap, denying Norris the bonus point. Paddock reports then emerged of McLaren CEO Zak Brown questioning possible collusion between the two Red Bull-linked teams. It proved to be Ricciardo’s farewell race: after the weekend, RB announced that Liam Lawson would replace him. He was voted Driver of the Day on race day.

Alexander Albon lost places at the start after being squeezed out by team mate Colapinto, then drove into the garage and retired on lap 16 because of power-unit overheating. Kevin Magnussen also failed to finish after suffering a late puncture. Every Singapore Grand Prix at Marina Bay since the inaugural 2008 event had featured a Safety Car, but this 62-lap race was the first to run to the finish without one.

Four weeks later, the championship would move to the Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas, for the start of three consecutive race weekends in the Americas.