170 meters.
The statistic had gone from interesting to perhaps overbearing. Throughout his Formula 1 career, Lando Norris had yet to lead an opening lap when starting from pole position. He has a win on his resume when starting from pole position, his dominant performance in the Dutch Grand Prix this season stands out in that regard, but even on that afternoon in Zandvoort Norris lost the lead on the opening lap.
However, 170 meters, as pointed out by James Hinchcliffe on F1TV ahead of Sunday’s Singapore Grand Prix, is the approximate distance from the starting grid to Turn 1 at the Marina Bay Street Circuit. With Norris starting from pole position once more, and his rival in the Drivers’ Championship Max Verstappen alongside him in P2, could Norris finally put that statistic — and the questions that persisted regarding it — to bed?
We now have our answer.
The McLaren driver rocketed off the line and, in what has been an issue in the past, maintained his lead over Verstappen through the second phase of the start, and finally led that opening lap when starting up front.
He never looked back.
Norris extended his lead over Verstappen out of DRS range by the third lap, and it was on Lap 9 when the team instructed him to try and extend that lead to about five seconds over Verstappen by the mid-teens.
By Lap 13 that advantage was around seven seconds. It was in the double digits by Lap 16.
By Lap 24 Norris was around 18 seconds ahead of Verstappen, almost giving him a pitstop in hand.
There was a rather harrowing moment for Norris shortly after that. After starting the race on a set of medium tires Norris had extended his stint beyond their recommended shelf life. But a lockup at Turn 14 late in that stint saw Norris brush the wall ever so slightly with the left side of his front wing, prompting the driver to warn his team that he might have some front wing damage. Norris came in on Lap 30 for his pitstop and McLaren switched to hards, and the team kept that front wing on, reporting only “minor” damage.
Disaster averted for the McLaren driver, who rejoined the fight and continued to pull away.
Behind him, the fight was as fascinating as ever. Norris’ teammate Oscar Piastri, after starting fifth, put in an even longer stint on the medium tires he began with, not pitting until Lap 38. The Australian driver rejoined the fight in fifth place but quickly reeled in Lewis Hamilton ahead of him, taking fourth on the track.
Up next for Piastri was Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate, George Russell. By Lap 45 Piastri closed within a second of Russell, pushing the Mercedes driver corner after corner on the tight Marina Bay circuit.
On Lap 45, Piastri made the overtake stick as the pair wound through Turns 6 and 7, putting him in podium position in third behind Verstappen.
That lap produced yet another nervy moment for Norris and McLaren, as the race leader — over 20 seconds ahead of Verstappen at that point — brushed the wall at Turn 10 with his right rear tire.
Another stark reminder that the margin between glory and disaster in this sport is razor-thin, especially so in the sauna-like environment that is the Singapore Grand Prix.
“Ok so full concentration now. Take a drink,” was the instruction from Norris’ race engineer Will Joseph at that moment.
In other words, it was time to focus and not give the game away.
Ultimately, Norris did not give that game away. He got the start he needed, built a dominant lead over his rivals, and delivered the kind of commanding victory this sport has seen before from other champions.
With Piastri joining him on the podium, McLaren extended their lead in the Constructors’ Championship to 41 points over Red Bull. In contrast to McLaren’s double podium Verstappen finished second, and Sergio Pérez could only manage a tenth-place finish after a difficult qualifying session on Saturday, and a thirteenth-place start on the grid.
Not everything was perfect for Norris on Sunday night in Singapore. As the laps ticked down Norris had the bonus point for the fastest lap of the race in hand, but Visa Cash App RB F1 team called Daniel Ricciardo into the pits in the final act of the Grand Prix and bolted on a set of soft tires, allowing the Australian driver to lay down a stunning lap at the death to capture that bonus point.
Time will tell if that is Ricciardo’s swan song in F1, as rumors persist regarding his future and his status at VCARB.
“Thank you, Daniel,” was the comment from Verstappen following the race over the radio, as the Red Bull driver acknowledged what that one point could mean for him in his fight with Norris.
But the night belonged to Norris, Piastri, and McLaren, and at this rate, the season might too.
“It was an amazing race, a few too many close calls and a couple of little moments in the middle,” said Norris trackside to David Coulthard following the Grand Prix. “The car was mega, I could push, we were flying the whole race.
“A good day for the team, also,” concluded Norris.
Here are the full provisional results from Sunday’s Singapore Grand Prix:
As far as the Drivers’ Championship goes, this was a win that Norris badly needed if he was going to keep the pressure on Verstappen. Norris carved out another seven points from Verstappen’s lead and now trails by just 52 points in that fight with six race weekends remaining, as well as a trio of F1 Sprint races.
Now the grid will go quiet for a few weeks, with the next stop on the schedule coming in mid-October at the United States Grand Prix in Austin. Red Bull has maintained that the Circuit of the Americas is where they hope to see the most improvement from the RB20, and perhaps set themselves up for a late-season surge of their own.
Given what we have seen from Norris, Piastri, and McLaren in recent weeks, they are going to need that and more if they are to catch their rivals atop the standings.
