Papaya Rules – Again!

22 September 2024, Singapore – Lando Norris claimed his first win at the Marina Bay Street Circuit in the Formula 1 Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix 2024 to continue McLaren’s quest for a double title triumph this year.

The 24-year-old Englishman, starting from pole, took a further eight points out of Max Verstappen’s lead in the Drivers’ Championship as the Red Bull driver staged a superb damage limitation exercise by finishing second, 20.495 seconds behind.

One of the most surprising features of the 62-lap race is that this was the first Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix without a Safety Car — though Norris himself almost brought it out, not once but twice, as the heat and humidity of battle caused two lapses of concentration and two brushes with the Marina Bay walls.

“It was an amazing race,” said Norris after his third win of the season. “A few too many close calls! We were flying the whole race. Sometimes it can be that you’re just chilling too much...” After his second flirtation with disaster the team radioed to say first, “Full concentration now, take a drink”, and then, “Just chill out, bring this car home,” Norris duly obliged.

“I tried to do the best I could,” said Verstappen, who at several stages was almost 30 seconds adrift of the leader. “I had to manage my own pace to the end, but on a weekend where we knew we were going to struggle, second is a great result.” 

McLaren’s hopes of their first Constructors’ Championship of the 21st century increased as Oscar Piastri took third, while Red Bull’s second driver Sergio Pérez could finish only 10th. 

The Mexican veteran, who complained that his car was “bouncing around like a kangaroo”, took too long to overtake 21-year-old Argentine Franco Colapinto’s Willliams but was gracious enough to say, in the heat of battle on lap 16: “He’s very good – difficult to pass Colapinto.”

Verstappen now leads by 52 points with six races and three sprint races left, while McLaren have extended their Constructors’ lead to 41.

Fourth was George Russell, the first Mercedes driver home, with teammate Lewis Hamilton sixth and the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc sandwiched between them. Leclerc and teammate Carlos Sainz in seventh place did as much as they could have hoped for after a disastrous qualifying session that saw them start from the fifth row.

Spanish veteran Fernando Alonso, winner here in 2008 and 2010, claimed eighth place for Aston Martin, while one of the stand-out performers of the weekend, Nico Hülkenberg in the Haas, was rewarded with his seventh points-scoring finish of the year in ninth.

On a night where Daniel Ricciardo was assumed to be driving his last race, at least for the moment, his VCARB team – effectively Red Bull’s junior F1 team – called the 35-year-old Australian in for soft compound tyres with three laps left. He did Verstappen a favour by claiming fastest race lap of 1:34.486 or 170.606 km/h to deny Norris that bonus point.

The F1 Academy must teach its young charges the art of understatement as well as race-craft. Just before her second win from pole on the streets of Singapore and her seventh in the series so far, Abbi Pulling said: “Something seems to be working this year.”

Pulling led into Turn 1 at the start of the second 12-lapper as she loves to do and, like a thoroughbred racehorse, her Alpine-backed race car won going away from the field, with a margin of 3.276 seconds over Maya Weug’s Ferrari-liveried entry and the Mercedes-supported Doriane Pin.

Dutch driver Weug started third but was second within two corners, making the most of the getaway to catch out Frenchwoman Pin. “It was the only chance to get a move in,” said Weug, and her bravery meant the podium was a carbon copy of Saturday’s.

“I know I need to keep the momentum up,” insisted Pulling, who also took fastest race lap of 2:05.129 or 133.997 km/h. She now has 245 points with two rounds and four races left after dominating on the Marina Bay streets: “The car was amazing. I love street circuits and this one is raw, bumpy and unforgiving – I’ve absolutely loved it!”

In Porsche Carrera Cup Asia action, Dylan Pereira completed a Singapore clean sweep, winning the second 12-lap race to retain a chance of catching series leader Alessandro Ghiretti for the drivers’ title. Pereira swept past pole-sitter Mathys Jaubert off the line, stayed in the lead after a Safety Car intervention on the opening lap, and took his third win of the 13 races in the season so far ahead of Jaubert and Ghiretti.

“I’m absolutely delighted to win the two rounds here in Singapore in tough conditions at a very tricky circuit,” said the 47-year-old Team Shanghai Yonda BWT driver. “Going into the last round, the championship battle is interesting and maybe I’m a bit too far back, but it’s racing and anything can happen.” 

Bao Jinlong’s superb 10th class victory of 2024 earned him the Pro-Am title, while Erik Kwong retained his lead in the Am category.