FORMULA 1 SINGAPORE AIRLINES SINGAPORE GRAND PRIX 2024

Formula 1 raced into the night under the lights at the Marina Bay Street Circuit in Singapore this weekend.

Off-track, rumours were swirling about the Singapore Grand Prix being Daniel Ricciardo’s last weekend in F1, with plans for Kiwi driver Liam Lawson to take his RB seat in Austin. Max Verstappen has to complete community service after swearing in Thursday’s press conference, and Kevin Magnussen returned to his usual Haas seat having missed Baku after reaching the 12 penalty point limit.

A new DRS zone, down the ‘new straight’ at turns 14 to 16, brings the DRS zone total in Singapore to four.

Formula 1

The lights were beaming onto the main straight ahead of Lights Out at 8pm local time, ahead of the F1 Night Race in Singapore.

Lando Norris started on Pole for the sixth time this season, with Verstappen second and Hamilton third. The red lights went out, Norris flew off the front row, and the top three order remained unchanged.

The overtaking began with Oscar Piastri taking his P5 back from Hulkenberg’s Haas on the first lap after being divebombed earlier in the lap. Franco Colapinto, in his third Grand Prix with Williams, made up three places on the opening lap to sit in the points places in P9. With DRS enabled, Verstappen kept close to Norris, but both Mercedes cars slipped out of touching distance to the Red Bull ahead.

The opening stint ran smoothly for everyone and the pit-stops began on lap 11, with Daniel Ricciardo taking the first trip to the narrowest pit lane on the calendar. Carlos Sainz made the first pit stop for Ferrari from P12 and returned to the race in P18, with Alex Albon on his tail. By lap 16, the gap was over 10 seconds. Albon dropped to P20, passed by Sainz and Ricciardo on lap 17, he entered the pit lane for retirement with his car overheating. A disappointing end for Alex, who treats the Singapore Grand Prix as a home race – the closest on the calendar to Thailand.

As each lap passed, Norris was building up a gap from Verstappen, still holding onto fastest lap of the race. Hamilton came over the radio to tell his team he believed he’d clipped the wall, while the McLaren team looked to be rushing out into the pit lane. A dummy call most likely, with both drivers passing the pit entry.

Norris radioed to his team on lap 30 complaining of front wing damage after locking up, whilst Verstappen entered the pit lane for Hard tyres. Norris made his trip to the pit lane from the lead, his team only changing his tyres from mediums to hards, before rejoining ahead of Piastri. McLaren then informed their race leader that the front wing issue was minimal.

Leclerc finally pitted on lap 37 and Piastri complained of tricky tyres over the radio, unsurprising after spending 38 laps on his mediums, soon entering the pit lane for fresh hards. On Hamilton’s tail, Piastri lunged around the outside of the Mercedes, with Russell his next target.

RB teammates were close on lap 42, with Ricciardo instructed to allow Tsunoda to pass for P12. Further up the grid, Sainz moved aside for Leclerc to pass for P6. On lap 46, Piastri passed Russell for P3. Norris hit the wall once again but was still holding his lead.

Magnussen hit the wall on the exit of turn 5, left to limp to the pit lane with a puncture. He took fresh soft tyres and rejoined the race at the back of the pack. Two laps before the end of the race, Magnussen was instructed to retire. Meanwhile, Ricciardo took to the pits for a third stop, taking the fastest lap of 1:34.486, in what could be his final Grand Prix.

After leading every lap, Lando Norris crossed the line to take the chequered flag with a 20 second gap to second place Verstappen. The other McLaren of Piastri rounded out the podium. The result sees McLaren extend their lead in the Constructors’ Championship, sitting pretty in P1 with 516 points, Red Bull with 475. Norris is now 279 points behind Verstappen, who is first in the Drivers’ Championship with 331 points.

F1 Academy

F1 Academy returned for round five, and current Championship leader Abbi Pulling leaves Singapore with one hand on the title after taking her fourth Grand Chelem of 2024.

Bianca Bustamante rolled over her starting box and failed to start from the Pit Lane, resulting in a 10-second stop/go penalty and the race being shortened to 11 laps. Pulling pulled away

from the rest of the pack at lights out, delivering consistent fastest laps. After her best Qualifying of 2024, Lia Block started from P4 and maintained her position to the end. Wild Card entry Ella Lloyd qualified P9 but made moves straight away; she passed Martí, Hamda Al Qubaisi – who went wide at the turn 1 run off – and Chambers to climb the pack. By lap four, Pulling had broken the 1-second window to P2.

Lloyd and Pin were handed five-second penalties for false starts, and the French driver had to build over a second buffer to Block in P4 to maintain her podium spot. Pulling took the flag 2.056 seconds ahead of the pack, with Maya Weug finishing second and Pin securing third.

In race two, Pulling flew off the line and Weug went wheel-to-wheel with her PREMA teammate Pin, but by turn five, had secured P2. Lloyd continued to showcase her talent on debut, beating Carrie Schreiner off the line and piling the pressure on Hamda Al Qubaisi. Pulling’s lead by lap three was over a second, but the Safety Car was soon deployed after Bustamante went wide over the kerb at turn seven, before spinning but rejoining the track. On the lap five restart, Pulling moved early to build a sizeable gap through turns 17, 18 and 19. She took her second Singapore win with a 3.2 second gap, with Weug and Pin behind her.

Block secured another P4 finish in race two, while Lloyd scored again on her F1 Academy debut.

F1 returns after its unofficial winter break with the USGP in mid-October. Meanwhile, F1 Academy is back for the penultimate round of the season in Qatar at the end of November.