Lando Norris prevailed on an evening his title dreams demanded he had to, taking a commanding but occasionally nerve-rattling win in the Singapore Grand Prix.
The British driver mostly dominated from pole, never surrendering the lead in 62 laps despite two heart-stopping brushes with the wall, with title rival Max Verstappen runner-up for Red Bull.
Verstappen’s lead is trimmed from 59 to 52 points with 180 remaining across six grands prix and three sprint races.
The established view among motor racing’s cognoscenti was that Verstappen would hold on to his title lead all the way to Abu Dhabi on December 12. After all, the Dutchman’s margin stood at 78 points at the summer break.
Norris has now nibbled away at the rate of 27 in the last four races – and it should have been a bigger-sized bite but for his own tentative starts and his team’s slowness at realising the drivers’ title was within firing distance.
Lando Norris won the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix ahead of championship rival Max Verstappen
Norris finished a huge 20.9 seconds in front of the three-time world champion Verstappen
Verstappen’s lead in the Driver’s Championship has now been trimmed from 59 to 52 points
He could conceivably be 17 points closer just over the post-break races, never mind the other points squandered earlier in the campaign
Now, Norris cannot be rated an outsider for the title, given that here he was driving a McLaren so far ahead of the field it was reminiscent of the dominance displayed by Red Bull when the season started.
He finished a huge 20.9sec in front, and it could have been more had he wished.
This was exemplified by the instruction Norris was given on lap eight to open up a lead of five seconds by the mid-teens.
That was the margin of lead he needed to remain in front if Verstappen, starting as well as finishing a place back, were to undercut him.
Verstappen has failed to claim victory in his last eight races – with his last first place finish coming in June at the Spanish GP
This was Norris’ third victory this season, with the British driver having already won the Miami Grand Prix and the Dutch Grand Prix
Norris, with plenty of poke under his bonnet, achieved the five-second gap by the end of lap 11. He was a second a lap quicker, and merely cantering.
By lap 25, Norris’s lead stood at 20sec. Again, cantering.
Verstappen came in after 29 laps. It was a slightly slow stop at 3.0sec by the usually adroit Red Bull pit crew.
It was now that Norris grazed the wall for the first time, at Turn 14, having taken too much speed into the right-hander.
He radioed his concerns hat there may be damage. There was a touch but not much, he was told. And when he came in at the end of lap 30, he was not furnished with a new wing.
There was time enough to fit one – a job lasting 12sec or so – and still emerge in front. That was the measure of his authority.
Only his own wandering concentration in humid 30C heat could defeat him, and on lap 45 he again scratched his rear rights tyres along the wall.
Norris nearly killed his own race as he had two close calls with the wall before radioing his concerns in to his team
‘Full concentration now,’ implored race engineer Will Joseph. ‘Take a drink.’
Jospeh later said: ‘Just chill out. Just bring this car home.’
As well as the victory itself, a fillip for Norris was the alacrity of his start.
The 24-year-old had not completed a first lap he had started on pole on five previous occasions in the lead, but he was very quickly away this time. All were sucking up his fumes by the first corner, a short sprint from the line.
The combination of a lethally quick car and a driver gaining self-belief is a potent one.
Chances to win the title come around so rarely he will need to draw heavily on those positives.
Norris is now within striking distance to the current world champion and it is all to play for heading into the final six Grand Prix races
Fighting at the front suddenly asks questions of drivers that that they have never faced before. How will they stand up to internal and external scrutiny?
Verstappen, from his perspective, at least managed to limit the damage, holding off third-placed Oscar Piastri in the other McLaren.
Lewis Hamilton started second but finished sixth, leapfrogged by his Mercedes team-mate George Russell (fourth) and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc (fifth).
The seven-time world champion was unhappy with his strategy, having been summoned early to be reshod. ‘
We will be in trouble later,’ he predicted. ‘Way too short.’
It was not the smoothest afternoons for him all round.
He nicked the wall on the way into the pits and then ran wide tying to pass Yuki Tsunoda’s RB. Toto Wolff, his boss watching on from the Mercedes garage, put his hands to his mouth.
Hamilton survived that, but it was a bad day for him after his impressive third in qualifying.
Lewis Hamilton started second but finished sixth and was leapfrogged by his Mercedes team-mate George Russell (fourth) and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc (fifth)
Daniel Ricciardo, in what may be his final race in Formula One, deprived Norris of the fastest-lap bonus point at the eleventh hour.
‘Thank you Daniel,’ said Verstappen, for every point counts now.