Dominant Norris Takes Victory in Singapore
Minus a couple of near misses, the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix was pretty damn easy for Lando Norris who took a dominant and key victory around the streets of Singapore. Max Verstappen did a good job to finish second in his Red Bull whilst Oscar Piastri rounded out another double Podium for McLaren!
The Biggest Talking Points
Despite a few cars going off at Turn 1, it was actually a pretty clean start for all with Lando Norris getting a good start to remain in the lead. Oscar Piastri pulled off a really good move to re-overtake Nico Hulkenberg for P5 whilst Carlos Sainz lost a few positions to the likes of Sergio Perez. It became pretty clear early on that it was going to be difficult to overtake which is why Williams and Ferrari boxed early to try the undercut with Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz respectively. Unfortunately for Albon, an overheating issue forced him to retire from the Grand Prix (bad luck for Alex). At the front, Lando was completely in a world of his own, but he did nearly mess it up at Turn 14 (it’s actually quite impressive). Charles Leclerc’s Race wasn’t going particually well, with the Ferrari Driver stuck behind both Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso, but Charles eventually managed to get by and set some pretty good lap times.
After the first round of stops, Lando was miles ahead of Max whilst George Russell was able to jump Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton who was not at all happy with the strategy he was on (honestly, this was the second straight weekend where Lewis just didn’t have the pace in the Race). Oscar Piastri, who boxed later than almost everyone, came back through and cleared both Mercedes cars to move onto the Podium whilst Charles Leclerc was finally making his strategy work as he cleared current teammate Carlos Sainz and future teammate Lewis Hamilton for P5. However, Leclerc didn’t quite have enough to pass Russell for P4, and behind all of that, Kevin Magnussen was forced to retire after picking up a puncture a few laps before whilst Franco Colapinto just couldn’t quite pass Sergio Perez for the final points-paying position (another good showing for Franco).
The Standout Drives in the Race
I’ve only given out one 10 for today’s Singapore Grand Prix and that is obviously for Lando Norris. To be fair to Lando, he did try and crash a couple of times, but he was so far ahead that he could just have fun! Honestly, fair play to him! I also thought Max Verstappen got the maximum result he could, Oscar Piastri did well to recover to the Podium, George Russell and Charles Leclerc did well to comfortably out-perform their teammates, and fair play to Fernando Alonso and Nico Hulkenberg for scoring some points!
Drivers Who Had a Shocker
For the third straight Race, I haven’t given out a single 1! Either I’m being too nice all of a sudden, or no one’s being absolutely terrible! However, Pierre Gasly and Daniel Ricciardo’s days were not good, obviously not helped by their strategy, but still. On the positive note for Danny Ric, he did set the Fastest Lap at the end which was nice to see! Kevin Magnussen also didn’t have a great return as he got a puncture late on after hitting the wall at Turn 5, and Lance Stroll also didn’t do much, but I won’t bash him too hard because I literally didn’t see him (besides getting passed by Carlos Sainz)!
Overall Race Results and My Ratings
Lando Norris: 10
Max Verstappen: 9
Oscar Piastri: 8
George Russell: 8
Charles Leclerc: 8
Lewis Hamilton: 5
Carlos Sainz: 5
Fernando Alonso: 8
Nico Hulkenberg: 8
Sergio Perez: 4
Franco Colapinto: 7
Yuki Tsunoda: 6
Esteban Ocon: 5
Lance Stroll: 3
Zhou Guanyu: 5
Valtteri Bottas: 4
Pierre Gasly: 2
Daniel Ricciardo: 2
Kevin Magnussen: 2 (DNF)
Alex Albon: -
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