Norris holds off Singapore field after perfect getaway

Lando Norris produced a statement win over Max Verstappen in Singapore to strike another dent in his rival’s world championship lead.

- PHILIP DUNCAN

The British driver survived two scrapes with the wall, but still led every lap under the lights of the Marina Bay circuit to take the chequered flag 20.9 seconds clear of Red Bull’s Verstappen.

Norris’s win – the most emphatic of his career so far – means he trails Verstappen by 52 points with 180 points still to play for over the remaining six rounds. Oscar Piastri finished third, one place ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell, with Charles Leclerc fifth for Ferrari. Lewis Hamilton started third but crossed the line a disappointing sixth.

Much has been made of Norris’s starts this year, and heading into yesterday’s hot and humid affair, the British driver had failed to end the opening lap in the lead on any of the five previous occasions he had started from pole. This unwanted statistic would have played on Norris’s mind, but he executed a near-perfect getaway here to keep Verstappen at bay on the short stampede to the opening chicane.

On lap eight, Norris was urged to create a five-second gap to Verstappen, and he duly obliged. By the end of lap 11 he was 5.7 sec clear of the Red Bull driver and on lap 16 he had doubled his advantage. Norris was lapping one second faster than his rivals.