Marina Bay, Singapore – Max Verstappen took his 11th podium of the season in what was a brutal 62 lap race for the drivers around the hot and humid Marina Bay Circuit. Sergio Pérez managed to grab the final Championship point with a 10th-placed finish.
As the lights went out, Norris got away well to maintain his lead from pole position. Max also made a good start in second place, keeping the Soft-tyre starter Lewis Hamilton at bay.
Checo, starting 13th, was also quick of the mark with William’s Alex Albon going wide into Turn 1, which allowed the Mexican to gain a position. He then quickly muscled his way past slow starter Carlos Sainz, who also went wide, and then powered past VCARB’s Yuki Tsunoda to climb into the points as the first lap came to a close.
Back at the front, Norris and Verstappen began to pull away from the pack, but after five laps and 1.8 seconds ahead of Max, it was clear the McLaren was the car to beat on this street circuit. By lap 13, Norris extended his lead to over 7 seconds while Max led Hamilton by 5 seconds.
Hamilton was the first of the front runners to pit for fresh tyres, losing his Softs for a Hard-compound switch. Hamilton found himself back in 13th, now with Russell trailing Max but with the other McLaren following closely in fourth.
Checo was called into the pits on lap 29, attempting to bypass Colapinto in the pit lane. The Mexican moved to Hard tyres in a 2.2s halt, and when the Williams driver made his stop two laps later the undercut had paid off and Checo was three seconds clear of the Argentine driver.
Max made his only stop a lap later than his team-mate and that boosted Piastri to second, though he was yet to pit. Norris, who locked up on fading mediums and almost hit the wall, then made his pit stop on lap 31 and he rejoined in the lead, seven seconds ahead of Piastri who was a little less than 14 seconds clear of Max.
Piastri finally came in on lap 39 and emerged back on track in fifth. However, with a significant tyre advantage over the two Mercedes cars ahead of him. Over the next eight laps he reeled in Hamilton and Russell in quick succession and bedded into third place.
This restored Max to his starting position, though the champion was now more than 23 seconds adrift of Norris.
The first round of pit stops left Checo in P10 once again, 1.7s behind Hülkenberg. The Mexican did all he could to provoke a mistake, but the German driver was using all his experience to maintain his position.
On lap 48, Norris almost threw away the lead again clipping the wall, but the nervous moment seemed to galvanise the McLaren driver and he responded with a new fastest lap on the following lap.
At the end of the 62 laps of the Marina Bay Circuit, it was Norris that came home to take the win. However, with Max cruising home to take second and his 11th podium of 2024, minimized the damage to his lead in the Drivers’ Championship. Piastri claimed third ahead of Russell and Leclerc with Hamilton taking sixth.
There was a final bonus for the Bulls, too, in the shape of Daniel Ricciardo making a late, late pit stop for Soft tyres. The Australian promptly went out and claimed a superb fastest lap, the 17th of his career and one that denied Norris the extra point in the championship standings.
Max Verstappen, taking yet another podium, said “Coming in second today was a good result for us. I think my start was quite decent but there wasn’t a lot of grip on that side so was difficult to have a go into turn one. The degradation was also quite high for me in the first stint.
“During the race, we didn’t have the pace to fight for first unfortunately, so I managed the tyres and drove my own race. We know that this of course is not our strongest track, but there is still a bit of work to do as we didn’t have the pace that we would have liked, but I think the damage limitation was done.”
Sergio Pérez, taking home a valuable point for the Team, said “Tonight’s result was a shame I think, we had a great start, but we lost an opportunity to undercut some cars, like we saw Carlos and Ferrari do. It was really unfortunate; after passing three cars at the start, it then became a tricky race. It was frustrating and I think we missed out a bit on the strategy side. I struggled quite a lot with the car bouncing and the balance, it was just not settling down, I had a real issue with it.”
Oracle Red Bull Racing take a break and return at the United States Grand Prix on the 20th of October.