Selamat, MiniFans! After yesterda’s incredible qualifying session, the surprises weren’t over. A failed test by Williams sent both its drivers to the back of the grid, as they were disqualified from the session. Furthermore, a small rainfall a couple hours before the race was set to start changed plans: it wasn’t enough to force a start with intermediates, but it did modify strategies. A handful of drivers, including Verstappen, went for softs, as the lower track temperature allowed for a bit of a riskier strategy.
A relatively clean start saw Norris aggresively overtaking both Antonelli and his own teammate, including a small contact between them and Verstappen, to climb up to third. Behind them, the exchange of positions was a bit wilder: Leclerc climbed a couple up to fifth, getting past his teammate and an Antonelli whose start was anything but brilliant. Back at the front, Russell was starting to get away, slowly but surely building up a gap to Verstappen, who now had Norris stuck in his rearview mirrors. The Brit had shaken off Piastri as the Australian questioned his team on Norris’ tactics, as they likely didn’t fall within the limits established in the team when fighting one another.
The race settled quite quickly, with eyes fixed on Norris’ front wing: the left endplate was hanging onto by a thread and under threat of being asked to pit to get rid of the potential projectile. In the midfield, Alonso’s great start had granted him a couple of positions, placing him in front of faster cars and creating a small train. The first stops came from the back, with Tsunoda and Bortoleto, who had to change his front wing as well, just as Norris requested a once-over to his car from the team, having kissed the wall. A couple of laps later, McLaren started the performance: their messages with Norris mentioned trying an undercut and getting an enthusiastic response, but it was Red Bull that forced hands. They ended up pitting first, letting Verstappen out right in front of Alonso, who had finally shaken off Hadjar by a handful of seconds.
The initial joy at the thought of an undercut by McLaren soon turned sour, as Verstappen’s out lap was so quick that pitting would mean staying behind. Forced to stay out, they extracted everything that was left in their medium tyres, but Verstappen on hards was setting fastest laps, flying on track. Seeing it coming, Ferrari pitted Hamilton, leaving the way free to avoid any kind of time loss battling. At the front, the first stop came from Russell, who “double stacked” him with Antonelli, who was far behind enough not to be problematic for the silver arrows. Leaving the pits right in front of Verstappen, McLaren’s hand was now forced and they did what they tend to: let the drivers have a say in strategy, asking Norris if he’d let Piastri pit before him to defend from Leclerc. After a brief yes, he seemed to remember earlier races and denied the request, having the team pit him a lap before Piastri. It still wasn’t enough, leaving the pitlane behind Verstappen.
Halfway through, the race was quite settled. The question was on the gap between Russell and Verstappe, which had shrunk to around two seconds from the ten it had originally been and only getting bigger as Verstappen coudln’t quite control his car. Behind him, Norris was also getting closer, and the tyre difference, in favour of the McLaren, was starting to be a bit obvious. However, the dirty air was starting to make a number on Norris, who wasn’t quite being able to close the gap further than a second and a half, eventually forcing him to drop even further. Added to this, it seemed as if Verstappen’s requested advice to deal with a rear part that felt like brakes was working out nicely, despite his continuous protests.
The battles that weren’t happening at the front were taking place at the back, with the bottom half of the grid going full elbows out. It was in these spaces that Hulkenberg spun on his own, likely due to the brake balance being way too skewed towards the back, and having the whole paddock hold their breath as only a yellow flag was displayed as the German made his way back to the pitlane. Returning to the front,Verstappen’s problems seemed to have finally caught up to him, despite all the advice from the team and his own iron will to get to the finish line. This made it so Norris was able to get close again, this time within his DRS window, and he coudln’t forfeit the chance at making the gap in the championship even smaller. However, they both had to contend with the lapped cars, losing the extra DRS they were being provided once they were through and going back to focusing on each other.
Entering the last ten laps, there were two main talking points: Hamilton had changed to a set of softs, as he had more than enough time to the next driver to have a free stop, and was hunting down Antonelli, easily getting past Leclerc in the meantime. He managed to get past briefly towards the end, but problems with his brakes facilitated the young Italian recovering his fifth place, leaving both Ferrari drivers behind. The second one was the battle at the front, as no matter what, Norris wasn’t able to get through. Save for a couple of places where he managed to get under half a second, the McLaren driver could not find a space to force his car into to go up more more position, following this rival to the checkered flag in third place, both ahead of the championship leader and behind the invisible winner, Russell.
Verstappen still isn’t a race winner in Singapore, but this season has given him what he’s never experienced here: an actual chance at fighting for something in the Singaporean night, achieveing a very sought after second place and chomping at the gap to both McLarens in the championship battle. Norris’ aggression at the start towards his teammate seemingly disappeared towards the end, not even managing to get his front wing into a space to try and overtake. The “bad” positions for McLaren still secured them the constructors’ title for the second year in a row, but it still doesn’t silence the internal pressure and battles between the two drivers who are supposed to fight to the end for the drivers’ title, which now has a third uninvited guest in the shape of Max Verstappen.
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