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It’s a battle under the lights at Marina Bay Street Circuit as Lando Norris and Max Verstappen prepare to line up side-by-side on the front row for Sunday’s Singapore Grand Prix.
The McLaren driver secured pole position after a quick final lap in Saturday’s qualifying, which saw a red flag during Q3 when Carlos Sainz hit the barriers. Red Bull has struggled with its car lately, but Verstappen still managed to put together a lap that was 0.203 seconds off of Norris. The two are separated by 59 points in the drivers’ standings, with Verstappen still holding onto the lead despite not winning a race since Spain in June.
Verstappen’s second-place start, though, starkly contrasts teammate Sergio Pérez’s Q2 knockout. It’s the first time since Hungary that the Red Bull driver hasn’t advanced to Q3, and he will line up P13 on Sunday. And then there’s Red Bull’s sister team, RB. Yuki Tsunoda advanced to Q3 for the first time since Hungary, while teammate Daniel Ricciardo was knocked out in Q1. Speculation continues to swirl around the Australian driver’s F1 future.
Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton shook his qualifying woes and will start third on Sunday’s grid alongside teammate George Russell. Mercedes’ recent performance has been an eyebrow-raiser. It seemed to make strides earlier this year, winning three of the final four grands prix before summer break, but it has since hit a bump.
It has been a fairly newsy few days in Singapore, as the race weekend started with discussions about swearing and McLaren’s wing. On Saturday, the off-track conversations continued after Verstappen handled the FIA post-qualifying news conference with short answers. He was ordered to complete public interest work for swearing on Thursday.
On Sunday, everyone’s focus likely will shift back to the brewing title fights and who will be the next grand prix winner in a season that’s seen seven different drivers stand on the podium’s top step. Here are the on-track storylines we’re following during the Singapore GP.
The latest chapter of Norris vs. Verstappen
When Verstappen could only muster 15th in second practice on Friday night in Singapore, it looked like Norris would have an opportunity to make serious inroads at the top of the championship.
Norris was rapid throughout practice and translated that into pole position on Saturday with a commanding yet comfortable performance, aware he did not need to overdo it to top qualifying.
But a series of overnight changes on Verstappen’s Red Bull, combined with some fine laps from the three-time world champion, put the Dutchman back into contention. After losing his first lap in Q3 to double yellow flags, he went marginally quicker with his final run at the end to grab second place on the grid.
Verstappen was delighted with P2 on the grid. While his news conference protest after qualifying was the main story surrounding him on Saturday, his on-track form put him into contention with Norris against all expectations. On a track where overtaking is a challenge, it means that even if Norris has the pace tomorrow to run away at the front, a second place to limit the damage in the title race is certainly in Verstappen’s grasp.
It’s a crucial moment in the drivers’ championship race. Verstappen’s points buffer remains healthy, but the competitor within won’t let him back out of a fight against Norris. The pair have battled a few times this year, most notably in Austria, where it ended in a late crash. But the stakes have now changed.
The race to Turn 1 between Norris and Verstappen could be emblematic of their championship fight — and, whatever the result, have consequences on the outcome.
Ferrari falls back to earth with a bump
From the high of Charles Leclerc’s emotional victory at Monza and his narrow defeat to Oscar Piastri in Azerbaijan, Ferrari came back down to earth with a big bump on Saturday in Singapore.
Given how strong Ferrari was in Monaco, this was a track that most anticipated would suit the SF-24 car. Leclerc and teammate Sainz, who won in Singapore last year, showed flashes of pace through practice, only to end up ninth and 10th on the grid for lights out on Sunday.
Sainz’s Q3 ended early after a strange crash at the final corner. He slowed to move out of the way of Piastri, who was on a hot lap and then tried to start his own flyer before getting in Verstappen’s way. The combination of cold tires and dirty air from the rear of Piastri’s car caused Sainz to lose control as he got back up to speed, sending him rearwards into the barrier.
🚩 RED FLAG 🚩
Sainz goes into the barriers at the final corner 💥
He looks okay 👍#F1 #SingaporeGP pic.twitter.com/s0zVabG6gS
— Formula 1 (@F1) September 21, 2024
It left Leclerc, a qualifying specialist, with a single lap to nail at the end of the session, only for the Monégasque to find his front tires weren’t up to temperature, costing him grip. He set a time that would have been good enough for seventh behind Haas driver Nico Hülkenberg, but it was deleted for exceeding track limits.
Leclerc was frank in his disappointment post-session, saying Ferrari “threw everything in the bin with the Q3 tire temperature issues.” He thought as high as second place on the grid was within reach.
“We were in a good place,” Leclerc said. “We’ve been competitive also thanks to the good job we’ve done. But I don’t know what happened out of the box temperatures, because it went all wrong from that moment onwards.”
It leaves Leclerc and Sainz facing a tough race from the fifth row, stunting Ferrari’s recent momentum, which had made it look like a potential threat to McLaren’s championship ambitions. Ferrari trails McLaren’s lead by 51 points.
A chance for Mercedes and Hamilton
It’s a curious situation for qualifying to become a weakness for the driver with more pole positions than anyone in F1 history. But that’s been the reality of Hamilton’s year. This generation of cars, particularly through Mercedes’ recent challenges, have felt like they’re on more of a knife’s edge. It makes building confidence hard, especially around a street circuit like Singapore.
At the site of arguably his greatest-ever pole lap in 2018, Hamilton rediscovered some of that spark to grab third place on the grid, narrowly beating teammate Russell as Mercedes locked out the front row.
Hamilton admitted to some surprise, saying he was “looking very poor” through practice and struggling with understeer, only for some changes between FP3 and qualifying to result in a night and day difference.
“I’ve not been up here (in the top three) for a while, qualifying has been a nightmare for quite a long time,” Hamilton said. “So it feels great to be up here. I feel very, very grateful and very, very happy.” He hoped that he and Russell could keep the pressure on Verstappen and Norris at the front and keep Piastri’s McLaren and the Ferraris back.
Off the pre-summer break high of three wins in four races, Mercedes’ form has dipped slightly since Zandvoort, even if it hasn’t taken a massive step back. The margins at the front are so fine that a little bit of development or simply getting the tires in the right window, as Russell found out in Baku and again in Singapore, can make or break a session.
Realistically, Verstappen and Norris might be out of reach for Mercedes, but Hamilton and Russell are in a good spot for an important haul of points.
Ricciardo needs a standout Sunday
Rumors and speculation continue to swirl around Ricciardo’s F1 future and whether he’ll finish out the season or be on the grid next year. Liam Lawson is waiting for his chance at a full-time seat after having numerous standout performances last season when he stepped in after Ricciardo suffered an injury. It’s expected a decision will be made about their futures after the Singapore GP weekend. But a Q1 exit likely doesn’t help matters.
Qualifying P16 comes as a bit of a surprise after Ricciardo’s lap times during Friday’s practice sessions saw him in the top 10. But he was down in the bottom five during third practice earlier on Saturday. When asked what happened during qualifying, Ricciardo said, “It was probably more what happened today. I don’t know. We didn’t really change much. Obviously, we were in a good place yesterday, so we were pretty upbeat about it, and we weren’t chasing our tail.”
The RB driver said the medium tire “was good” earlier in the day and “felt like we started off on the same foot as yesterday, but then I put the soft on, and I was nowhere. So we did a bit of fine-tuning for quali and we thought we’d be okay. But, I didn’t feel, let’s say, comfortable on the soft.”
He’s not the only driver who has criticized the tires. Russell raised complaints in Baku last weekend. Ricciardo admitted that he did struggle with all three soft tires he used Saturday and said the tires are “definitely a bit more fragile in the hotter climates.”
This isn’t the first time this season that questions about Ricciardo’s F1 future have surfaced. He called the Hungarian and Belgian GPs the most important races of his career, but at that time, he advanced to Q3 in Budapest. What is possible from a P16 start as he races to secure his F1 future?
“Hopefully, a well-timed safety car,” Ricciardo said before making a joke about the 2008 grand prix and Crashgate. “Bring (Nelson) Piquet (Jr.) back and let’s make it happen!”
Pérez faces another uphill battle
For the first time since Hungary, the second-to-last race before summer break, Pérez is starting Sunday’s grand prix outside of the top 10. It’s not nearly as bad as the July race where he lined up P16, but the Red Bull driver qualified P13 in Singapore, behind the Williams duo of Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto.
This marks Pérez’s seventh early qualifying exit of the year. He was roughly nine-tenths of a second short of Verstappen’s fastest Q2 lap.
“I don’t know, Q1 was looking really nice and smooth,” he said. “I actually had a mistake on my lap into Turn 13 where I lost around two (or) three-tenths, but I just went slower in Q2. I felt I was sliding a lot more, couldn’t get the tire up to temperature. It was just very, very tricky afternoon.”
Red Bull made changes to the car before Saturday’s sessions, and Pérez feels “we probably went in the wrong direction. It’s not so clear at the moment, but we certainly were in a nicer window yesterday, we just lost a lot of competitiveness.”
Considering Red Bull is 20 points behind McLaren in the constructors’ standings, the Milton Keynes-based crew needs to overcome its recent struggles and find the right set-up, something that can be difficult to pinpoint at Singapore. However, Pérez must also be closer to the top of the grid to form the one-two punch Red Bull needs to compete against Norris and Piastri.
“I think it’s going to be a very difficult race,” he said when asked what’s possible on Sunday. “Hopefully we can do some magic with the strategy and come through, that will be the key for us.”
Top photo: SIPA USA
