Lando Norris dominated the Singapore Grand Prix, main each lap of the race for the primary time in his profession.
He took pole place the day earlier than, ending Ferrari’s run of three consecutive poles on the Marina Bay circuit. Norris now has six profession poles and three grand prix victories, each matching the tallies of 1961 world champion Phil Hill. He additionally lastly saved his lead from pole place, one thing he didn’t do on all seven earlier makes an attempt.
Norris held the quickest lap of the race till Daniel Ricciardo nabbed it off him on the penultimate tour. Ricciardo completed properly outdoors of the highest 10, and due to this fact didn’t rating the bonus level which comes with it, so his crew’s motivation for instructing him to set the quickest lap time was a trigger for some hypothesis.
Probably the most important consequence of this for Norris was the lack of a probably very important championship level. Nevertheless it additionally price him the possibility to hitch the elite group of drivers who achieved ‘grand slams’ throughout their careers: Main a race all through from pole place and setting the quickest lap. Fewer drivers have achieved grand slams than gained world championships, and Norris would have been solely the twenty seventh driver in F1 historical past to take action.
Ricciardo’s quickest lap was the primary for Purple Bull’s second crew of their newest identification, RB. They scored two throughout their 83 races as AlphaTauri however just one through the 268 races they contested as Toro Rosso. Ricciardo now has 17 quickest laps, matching the tally of Rubens Barrichello.
There’s widespread hypothesis Ricciardo is not going to return to the cockpit of the RB after this weekend. If that’s the case, he’ll change into the fifth driver in F1 historical past to finish his profession with a quickest lap.
Did Ricciardo know that was his closing race however not inform anybody? Most drivers who ended their careers with a quickest lap didn’t realize it was their final race on the time. In truth the one driver who knew he signed off his profession with a quickest lap was Ricciardo’s fellow Australian Mark Webber, within the 2013 Brazilian Grand Prix.
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The opposite drivers all anticipated that they had extra races to run. Richie Ginther set the quickest lap within the 1966 Mexican Grand Prix, returned to race in Monaco the next yr, however didn’t qualify, and retired.
As you may anticipate the remaining two examples are extra unlucky. Onofre Marimon set the quickest lap within the British Grand Prix at Silverstone 70 years in the past, then was killed throughout observe two weeks later on the Nurburgring. And one of many all-time greats, Jim Clark, additionally died in a crash in Germany, three months after setting the quickest lap whereas successful the F1 season-opener in South Africa.
Norris’ success means Max Verstappen nonetheless hasn’t taken a pole place or victory at this observe, regardless of having gained at each different venue on the calendar. Purple Bull haven’t had a pole place in Singapore for greater than a decade.
This was McLaren’s second win within the Singapore Grand Prix, the one different coming courtesy of Lewis Hamilton 15 years in the past. They’ve now gained 4 of the final six races, their finest fee since they did the identical between the 2008 Monaco and Hungarian grands prix.
The fifteenth Singapore Grand Prix was the primary to run with no Security Automobile or Digital Security Automobile. Because of that, and the elimination of 4 corners from the observe format final yr, this was additionally the quickest Singapore Grand Prix of all time. Norris gained at a mean pace of 182.090kph. That is faster than 4 different races this yr – the Monaco, Japanese, Canadian and Chinese language grands prix – although all of those had been disrupted by Security Automobiles or purple flags.
This was additionally the third Singapore Grand Prix in a row the place the identical driver led each lap of the race. Carlos Sainz Jnr did so final yr and Sergio Perez in 2022.
Lastly, Alexander Albon made his one centesimal look in a grand prix weekend. He has began 99 races, having participated in observe at Monza two years in the past then stepped down as a result of sickness. There was nothing to rejoice for him this weekend, nevertheless: He was the one driver not labeled on the end.
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