Hotter than it’s been at this time all weekend, the Marina Bay track temperature sits at 37 degrees ahead of the Singapore GP.
Before the race can even begin, Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin has some issues, with the team doing a last-minute fix on a brake issue. The team are certain that the issue will be resolved ahead of the GP, and they’re right!
Norris, Verstappen, Hamilton, Russell, Piastri, and Hulkenberg line up on the first three rows. Most drivers opt for the medium tyre besides Hamilton, who starts on a set of softs.
Medium-hard or hard-medium is the likely tyre strategy for the race, according to Pirelli.
Annnnd it’s lights out and away we go!
Norris has an excellent start but further down the grid, Hulkenberg snatches fifth from his teammate, Piastri, but the Aussie quickly takes the spot back.
Some drivers, including Alonso, go wide at the first few corners and run-off areas, but by lap 3, Alonso still holds onto 7th.
Albon suffered most from the first lap, moving down to 15th as his teammate dive-bombed the pack, and forced him wide. This allowed Colapinto to push into 9th.
Norris has pulled away well from the pack and Verstappen is around a second and a half behind him, out of DRS.
Perez, in the other Red Bull, has moved into the points, now in 10th, after starting 13th.
Hamilton seems to now be struggling on the softs, now about 5 seconds from Norris, and 3 seconds behind Verstappen. Russell is catching up behind him and says: “He needs to increase the pace a bit.”
On lap 9, McLaren ask Norris to pick up the pace and create a 5-second gap ahead of Verstappen. And on lap 10, he sets the new fastest lap. By lap 13, he’s 7 seconds ahead of Verstappen.
Ricciardo is the first to pit, moving from his soft tyres to a new set of mediums on lap 11. The stop was a bit slow from the team, 3.5 seconds. However, this should give Ricciardo some clean air to pick up some speed.
Albon is the next to pit, moving onto a set of new hards, and following Ricciardo’s strategy.
Norris picks up more and more time in his lead, holding a lead of around 9 seconds on lap 15.
By lap 16 Albon has dropped behind Ricciardo, and heads to the pit, with some kind of issue. The Williams driver has to retire from the race, due to an overheating issue within the car, reportedly linked to the power unit overheating, “Car is overheating.”
Hamilton rids his soft tyres for a new of hards on lap 18, and returns to the track behind Magnussen.
Russell, now in third, needs to pull away from Piastri and chase Verstappen for second, whilst Norris furthers his lead, now around 14 seconds.
McLaren makes several dummy calls with Piastri, trying to lure Mercedes into pitting Russell ahead of them.
Norris now leads Verstappen by 17.5s. He’s told to go as long as possible on his current tyres and to make sure Verstappen is the first to pit.
Hamilton attempts a move on Tsunoda but goes wide and fails. The driver is verbally unhappy with his current strategy from the team.
Alonso pits from 6th and comes out in 13th. Hulkenberg, Leclerc, and Colapinto should be the next to respond.
On lap 28, Russell finally pits onto a set of hards ahead of his teammate. Piastri then takes 3rd behind Verstappen and will now attempt to make up time behind him.
Verstappen finally pits on lap 30 and comes out in fourth, right behind Leclerc.
Norris reports front wing damage after a touch with the wall and comes into the pit after Verstappen, with no change to his front wing. The team claim it’s nothing serious.
Verstappen passes Leclerc and comes into third, behind both McLarens. Only Norris has pitted from the team, and Piastri is only 17.5 seconds ahead of Verstappen, and he still needs to pit.
Ricciardo gets past Gasly and moves up into 12th, after starting in 16th.
Leclerc is still to pit and holds off fourth from Russell. He finally pits on lap 37 for hards and comes out just ahead of Hulkenberg.
Piastri makes his first stop on lap 39, a quick 2.2-second stop that brings him out behind both of the Mercedes. He gets past Hamilton on the following lap and is now chasing Russell, with fastest lap on lap 44.
Leclerc and Sainz swap positions to allow Leclerc the lead in 6th. He then grabs fastest lap and is around 13 seconds behind Hamilton, with the aim of catching him before the end of the race.
Piastri gets past Rusell and moves up into the podium positions, around 18 seconds behind Verstappen. This is a 1-3 for McLaren.
Hulkenberg is doing a great job of holding Perez up for 9th. The Red Bulls currently sit in 2nd and 10th.
Norris has a second touch with the wall on lap 47, but no immediate damage to the car. Despite this thump, he takes the new fastest lap of the race.
Magnussen has a puncture from P15 after hitting the wall but manages to make it back to the pit lane. He pits for softs and returns to the track, potentially looking to steal the fastest lap from Norris?
And, he succeeds! But it’s quickly taken off him due to a track limits infringement at turn two. The point goes back to Norris.
Perez continues to chase down Hulkenberg for 9th but fails over and over to get past him.
Five laps to go and Norris, Verstappen, Piastri, Russell, and Leclerc make up the top five. Leclerc is tucked up behind Russell, trying desperately to get past the Mercedes.
Lap 61 and Magnussen retires whilst Ricciardo comes into the pits for a fresh set of softs – attempting to steal the fastest lap of the race from Norris.
The final lap of the race and positions remain the same.
Ricciardo takes the fastest lap, on what is rumoured to be his final race at RB.
Lando Norris wins the Singapore GP.
Verstappen takes second behind him, followed by Piastri, Russell, Leclerc, Hamilton, Sainz, Alonso, Hulkenberg, and Perez.
