Lando Norris answered another question in Singapore on Sunday night.
A fine performance in qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix on Saturday earned him pole position, but as many were quick to point out, McLaren drivers have had a fairly spotty record when starting from the front. In their entire F1 career, they have never started from pole position and led the opening lap, including their dominant win at last month's Dutch Grand Prix.
With Max Verstappen starting second and seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton behind him, Norris was under pressure from the moment the lights went out on Sunday night. Hamilton may have been the biggest threat, with Mercedes taking a strategic gamble by fitting his W15 with soft tyres.
As James Hinchcliffe pointed out on F1TV before the race started, in Singapore drivers have around 170 metres to travel from the starting grid to the first corner, and each of those 170 metres may have been going through Norris' mind as he eased his MCL38 into his grid box after the formation lap and waited what felt like an eternity for the rest of the grid to line up.
Then the lights went out and Norris took off like a rocket. Hamilton put the pressure on Verstappen, but Norris outlasted the two champions and erased another negative mark on his career CV. Norris led that lap, and every lap after, to take a commanding win and move to within 52 points of Verstappen in the drivers' championship.
Norris started the season by once and for all eradicating the “Land No Win” nickname at the Miami Grand Prix, but his performance on Sunday further silenced doubters.
In terms of the Constructors' Championship, Oscar Piastri's third place finish gave McLaren an additional 40 points over the weekend, and despite Norris not receiving the bonus points for fastest lap of the race (more on that later), McLaren left Marina Bay to extend their lead in this battle with Red Bull to 41 points, more than doubling the 20-point gap they had at the start of the week.
“It was a great race. There were too many close calls. I had a few close calls along the way, but apart from that I think I had it under control. The car is great and I was able to push.” After the race, Norris told David Coulthard trackside:“I was flying the whole race, but I was able to relax at the end. It was a good race, but it's still tough. I was a bit out of breath, but it was a lot of fun.”
“It was a good race, we recovered well from qualifying yesterday. I wasn't at my best yesterday afternoon so to be back on the podium is a great result,” Piastri said. “I think our car was really fast and we had a good strategy to overtake Mercedes, so a big thank you to the team. The car was obviously exceptional this weekend and the whole team scored some great points.”
Red Bull may take solace in the fact that Singapore has been a difficult circuit for them in the past – last year was the only Grand Prix the team failed to win – and Verstappen's second-place finish is perhaps the team's best result, with the grid set to head into the United States Grand Prix in Austin after a three-week break. The team believes the circuit suits the RB20 and its recent upgrades a little better.
But McLaren still has some favourable circuits, including Qatar, where they achieved a double podium in the 2023 Grand Prix and where Piastri won the F1 sprint race last season, as well as Austin and Brazil.
So while Red Bull may still be in the fight, McLaren are the stronger force at the moment.
And answer all the questions they face along the way.
