Lando Norris kept the 2024 Championship alive with a dominant weekend at the Singapore Grand Prix. Talking of night racing, our 2024 Singapore F1 Grand Prix Result Summary was trying to stay awake.
This 2024 Singapore Grand Prix Result, Laps that Matter summary, Review & Ratings which gives you just enough to catch up with. With just a hint of cynicism, bias, opinion and colour. The perfect bite sized review for those who couldn’t be bothered, or don’t have enough time.
READ MORE:
Latest 2024 F1 Driver Rankings – from Azerbaijan GP
Our 2024 F1 Half Season Summary
F1 Team Mate Wars
2024 Singapore F1 Grand Prix Result Race Summary
Didn’t see the race live? Don’t have time to watch the whole race? Here’s where we capture the laps where stuff happened. We write these live as we go, sort of like a minute by minute for the football, but marginally more interesting.
Setting the scene – Lando Norris was dominant across most of the weekend and secured pole position with ease. Ferraris were meant to challenge but stuffed their qualifying, neither car ending up with a Q3 lap. Max Verstappen returned to form to a degree with second on the grid, while Sergio Perez returned to form as well, failing to make Q3. Talking of that, Daniel Ricciardo failed to make it past Q1, which means he may have qualified his last F1 car.
GRID (Starting Order) – LEC PIA SAI PER RUS VER ALO COL ALB BEA
Lap 1 – Lando Norris converts a pole position into first lap lead which will keep him happy and probably end the race. It’s pretty quiet directly behind him for a few cars until you reach Franco Colapinto who has an almighty dive down the inside of a million cars at turn one and climbs from 13th to 9th in one move, somehow he manages to avoid solid contact with any cars, walls, and time travel. Yuki Tsunoda owns the worst start dropping places, and he is in a Sainz-Perez sandwich, and is potential for being jam. Alex Albon also had a bad start dropping places.
ORDER – NOR VER HAM RUS PIA HUL ALO LEC COL PER
Lap 4 – This race is dull already with Lando Norris clearing out in front to be well clear of DRS and Max Verstappen. Mercedes seem interesting enough in 3rd and 4th but not capable of winning. The Hulk remaining in 6th is also interesting, more so if he can grab that elusive podium. But that’s not going to happen without a Safety Car. Where’s Nelson Piquet Jnr when you need him?
Lap 6 – It’s at this point we remember that only two cars are on the soft tyres as we speak/type. Lewis Hamilton in third and Daniel Ricciardo in 16th. Neither are going especially well, neither are going to win. At least Lewis Hamilton will drive at the next F1 race.
Lap 7 – With no excuse of soft tyres, Oscar Piastri looks slow compared to his multiple fastest lap setting team mate. Piastri is over two seconds behind the 4th place Mercedes of George Russell.
Lap 11 – RB pit Daniel Ricciardo for either new tyres and/or a new kind of torture. He’d now last behind the Kick Saubers. Which he might have to kick in a few laps time.
ORDER – NOR VER HAM RUS PIA HUL ALO LEC COL PER
Lap 18 – Lewis Hamilton pits for new tyres and rejoins in 13th, solidly in the midfield, which won’t make him happy. The race also has its first retirement in Alex Albon. We’d tell you what he retired with, but were asleep. Oscar Piastri is hounding George Russell for third. That pair are 11 seconds behind Max Verstappen who is 13 seconds behind Lando Norris.
Lap 19 – Carlos Sainz is getting used to his view for next season as he races the Kick Sauber at the back of the field. Further back replays show Lewis Hamilton taking 12th from Kevin Magnussen.
Lap 24 – Not much movement around the top ten for a while, but we’re awake enough to highlight the top ten runners below. The only point of interest is the radio of Lewis Hamilton and how much he hates his car right now.
ORDER – NOR VER RUS PIA HUL ALO LEC COL PER TSU
Lap 28 – Lance Stroll pits for new tyres. It almost wasn’t worth the effort of typing. Although, thoughts of Stroll getting his hands on a Newey car is frightening. If Lance Stroll can win a Championship then Adrian Newey is the greatest F1 figure in history. Although Perez could only win two races in the greatest ever F1 car. Talking of which, Perez pits from somewhere and rejoins somewhere else. It’s not at the sharp end that’s for sure.
Lap 29 – Charles Leclerc is up to 4th with a nice overtake on The Hulk.
Lap 30 – Max Verstappen pits from second and rejoins just behind Charles Leclerc who hasn’t pitted but is going well enough on his older tyres. The Hulk and Colapinto pit as well, both doing great jobs in inferior cars. Talking of superior cars, Lando Norris pits on Lap 31 and rejoins into clear air, with a fellow McLaren a little further back in the distance. No team orders required you’d think. Also No Jacket Required if you were planning to be Phil Collins at any stage.
Lap 32 – A grumpy Max Verstappen overtakes Charles Leclerc for third.
Lap 33 – Replays show that Lando Norris tags the wall quite hard on Lap 29. Nothing appears to be wrong with the car, so with that luck on his side, it’s his day for sure. And when we say day, we mean night.
ORDER – NOR PIA VER LEC RUS HAM TSU SAI ALO HUL
Lap 39 – Oscar Piastri finally pits and rejoins behind both Mercedes.
Lap 40 – Oscar Pastry rising through through the F1 field with a neat overtake on Lewis Hamilton.
Lap 41 – The two RBs are circulating around together. How nice. Ricciardo is in front of Tsunoda. But not for long. Camera pans to Liam Lawson in the pitlane, as is traditional.
Lap 45 – After stalking George Russell in reverse camera view for a few laps, Oscar Piastri takes the final podium spot. Although he is 18 seconds behind Verstappen who is 24 seconds behind Norris.
Lap 48 – Sergio Perez claims via radio he’s bouncing around like a Kangaroo. He has spent many laps chasing Nico Hulkenberg, and ultimately finishes behind him by race end.
ORDER – NOR VER PIA RUS HAM LEC SAI ALO HUL PER
Lap 50 – Daniel Ricciardo pits for new soft tyres and a chance at fastest lap. Is this a farewell present for Ricciardo? Or is RB sacrificing their driver, so he can steal the fastest lap point off Lando Norris, which helps Max Verstappen.
Lap 57 – There is so little action that the TV cameras follow Sergio Perez not overtake The Hulk for 9th. For many laps. Which is a few too many.
Lap 59 – The TV cameras also try with George Russell v Charles Leclerc for 4th. That doesn’t work by race end either.
Lap 60 – Kevin Magnussen retires from the GP.
FINAL LAP – Lando Norris win the Singapore with alarming ease for others, no less than his Championship rival Max Verstappen who is over 20 seconds behind by race end. Oscar Piastri rounds out the podium. Norris gets the honour of having Kylie Minogue waive the chequered flag.
FINAL ORDER (Across the line) – NOR VER PIA RUS LEC HAM SAI ALO HUL PER
Here we go through the field and highlight the very best (Great) of the race, and the plodders, the over-ambitious, the out of luck, and simply hopeless (Grape).
These points get added to our Driver of the Season scores. points for a great nomination, and -5 for the worst or grapest driver in the pack. Then it is +2 /-2 for honourable or dishonourable mentions.
THE GREAT-EST – LANDO NORRIS
Denied the perfect GP result due to some last minute Daniel Ricciardo cheekiness, Lando Norris was in charge all weekend (unlike any Charles) and it was a Champion-like drive. Luckily, he reduced the gap to Max Verstappen some more, to give that some airtime.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
MAX VERSTAPPEN – Not quite back in the high life again, but second on the gird and in the race is a solid return to some form. He’ll need to stay that close if he is to save his Championship.
NICO HULKENBERG – Sixth on the grid, point scoring drive in his Haas, the Hulk keep producing.
FRANCO COLAPINTO – Continues to impress massively. Qualified well again, or at least much better than Logan Sargeant. Caused some nuisance on the first lap with a huge overtake at the first corner. Held his own throughout the race despite
THE GRAPE-EST – DANIEL RICCIARDO
By all reports this could be his last race. Bad enough to be strung along like he has been, but to seemingly gets the worst of strategy to consolidate the misery. We wouldn’t dare say sabotage, but who could rule it out. At least Ricciardo set fastest lap.
DISHONOURABLE MENTIONS
SERGIO PEREZ – Qualified 13th, finished 10th gain a point. That one point wasn’t enough to fill the gap between Norris and Verstappen above. At least he didn’t run into anyone this weekend.
LEWIS HAMILTON – Not a great weekend. Having the soft tyres on his first stint didn’t help. Could have been worse, as he nearly binned it into the wall on the lead-in to that first pit stop.
CHARLES LECLERC – A genuine threat to pole position coming into the weekend. Instead he had his Q3 times removed which left him starting 9th on the grid and making mediocre progress
CARLOS SAINZ – Less Likely to take pole than Leclerc, but we’ll never know as he spun backwards into the wall at the last corner in Q3, and his race was compromised from that point on.
OSCAR PIASTRI – An underwhelming third while his team mate led with ease. Bit harsh, but needs less of these type of races if he is to be the 2025 F1 champion.
Was it a good race, loads of action, a tense ending, a surprise result or DNF, or just a big, fat, snooze-fest?
We rate the big race itself, so we know which races to go back and watch in the off season or one to simply remember the winner for the post season quiz nights.
ON TRACK ACTION – 2 / 10
Dull
ANY SURPRISES? – 1 / 5
Not really. Nico Hulkenberg hung on for a point maybe.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 5 / 5
A win for Lando Norris over Max Verstappen, and the manner of the win gives hope that he can do all it takes to take the title down to the wire. When we say the wire it’s not The Wire, but that TV show is so good.
ENDING 2 / 10
The ending of the race was much like the laps that preceded. Little action.
OVERALL RATING 10 / 30
Not the best race, but one that keeps the Championship alive.
2024 F1 Race Rankings
R17 – Azerbaijan Grand Prix…25/30
R16 – Italian Grand Prix…21/30
R15 – Dutch Grand Prix…15/30
R14 – Belgian Grand Prix…23/30
R13 – Hungarian Grand Prix…19/30
R12 – British Grand Prix…25/30
R11 – Austrian Grand Prix…27/30
R10 – Spanish Grand Prix…19/30
R09 – Canadian Grand Prix…22/30
R08 – Monaco Grand Prix…17/30
R07 – Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix…23/30
R06 – Miami Grand Prix…23/30
R05 – Chinese Grand Prix…15/30
R04 – Japanese Grand Prix…18/30
R03 – Australian Grand Prix…23/30
R02 – Saudi Arabia Grand Prix…9/30
R01 – Bahrain Grand Prix…13/30
2024 F1 Season Power Rankings
Stay tuned for our Power Rankings from the race soon as it is currently being calculated and will be ready on Monday.
Why not check the latest race ratings – 2024 Italian Grand Prix Ratings
Or our 2024 F1 Half Season Report.
Or check out our 2023 Season Driver Rankings and Stats
