Singapore GP: Lando Norris wins with ease at Marina Bay Street Circuit, what it means for the title race

Lando Norris survived a couple of brushes with barriers to win the Singapore Grand Prix with utter ease on Sunday. It cut into Max Verstappen’s Formula 1 standings lead in the Driver’s Championship. At the same time, it extended McLaren’s lead at the top of the Constructors’ Championship.

Norris began the race on pole position ahead of Verstappen and steadily built a large lead for his third career win. All have come this year.

The British drive started from pole position for only the sixth time in his career and had an unusually drama-free start. It is only the first time Norris has won from pole without losing a place on the first lap.

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There were two brief moments of worry: when he locked his brakes and touched the barriers, prompting concern he’d damaged the front wing, and later when a rear tyre brushed another but Norris seemed largely unaffected.

“It was an amazing race. A few too many close calls,” Norris said. “It’s not that you’re necessarily over-pushing. Sometimes it can be that you’re just chilling too much. Maybe it’s a bit of both. I don’t know what it is, but it’s tricky.”

Verstappen finished second in his Red Bull after a race that was largely uneventful after he held off Lewis Hamilton into the first corner at the start.

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Oscar Piastri, the winner for McLaren in Azerbaijan last week, moved up from fifth on the grid to finish third after passing Hamilton and later George Russell for the final podium place.

How the driver’s and constructor’s standings look now?

After 18 races in the season and six to go, McLaren have a sizeable lead at the top of the 2024 Constructor Standings. The Woking, Surrey-based team are on 516 points, 41 points clear of Red Bull Racing. Ferrari, on 441 points, are hot on their heels with Mercedes fourth on 329 points.

“I think we’ve got as good a shot as anyone,” Zak Brown, the chief executive of McLaren, declared last Sunday at IndyCar’s season-ending race.

McLaren is keenly focused on the constructors title, which is the one that pays the big money. The payout to the winning team is set by variables each year but is typically worth at least $140 million in prize money.

Over in the Driver’s Championship, even though Verstappen has not won a race since the Spanish Grand Prix in June, his dominant start at the start of the season: winning five of seven races has seen him maintain lead.

Verstappen is on 331 points after the Singapore Grand Prix, ahead of Norris by 52 points (279 points) and well clear of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc (245 points).

The title is still not longer entirely in Norris’ hands. Even if he wins every remaining race, second place in each would be enough for Verstappen to retain the title.

“I think on a weekend where we knew that we were going to struggle, to be P2 is a good achievement. Of course we’re not happy with second,” Verstappen said. “Now we just have to try and improve more and more and that’s what we’ll try to do.”

Six rounds of the championship remain, starting with the United States Grand Prix next month, and three of those offer extra points with sprint races.

If Norris earns maximum points in every one of those nine events, including the bonus point for fastest lap, and Verstappen finishes second in each, then Norris would cut the gap by only 51 points — finishing one behind Verstappen.