F1 Singapore GP: George Russell wins from pole as McLaren takes constructors’ crown

George Russell clinched victory from pole at the Singapore Grand Prix as McLaren clinched a second Formula 1 world constructors’ championship victory on the trot.

Russell built an early lead over fellow front-row starter Max Verstappen to present a significant advantage to ward off a potential undercut, and then preserved that through the race’s second phase through heavy traffic to successfully convert pole position.

Meanwhile, McLaren had to deal with a moment of contretemps at the start – where Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri made brief contact at Turn 3 – on the way to securing third and fourth. This proved to be a more than the necessary points haul needed to secure the constructors’ title; the Woking squad had needed 13 points to seal the deal.

Verstappen’s start on soft tyres could not necessarily nullify the disadvantage of starting on the dirty side of the grid, and had to fold in behind Russell into the opening corner – but then came under early attention from a fast-starting Norris.

Norris checked up at Turn 3 in an effort to avoid brief contact with Verstappen, and ended up clipping Piastri’s side through the corner exit as he barged his way though the order to move up to third.

Russell, knowing that he could lean more on his medium tyres in the opening stages of the race, began to open his lead over Verstappen and added about a half-second buffer over the Dutchman per lap.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing

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Verstappen – struggling with downshifts – took those softs to the end of the 19th lap, by which point he was almost 10 seconds behind Russell. Red Bull’s use of the undercut and Verstappen’s swift laps on the hard tyre ensured that, when Russell stopped for his own switch to the hards, the lead was now under four seconds.

For a time, it looked as though Verstappen was going to put pressure on the Mercedes driver; the lead shrunk to around 2.7s, but Verstappen then locked up at Turn 14 and ceded time. Norris, who had fallen to over four seconds behind Verstappen, was now back in the Red Bull’s mirrors.

Russell’s lead started to drop slightly to Verstappen after the 40-lap mark, as the leading trio began to catch up to a very long train of traffic. Yet, he was able to get through the backmarkers a little more easily than Verstappen, who was finding his rear braking difficult to manage. This opened the door for Norris to get within DRS range of the reigning champion, and followed him through the tailbacks.

With his priority now on defending from Norris, Verstappen had effectively been dropped by Russell, who was free to claim his second grand prix win of the season.

Once clear of traffic, Norris diced with Verstappen in an effort to wrestle control of second, but struggled to get into a position to realistically attack. The Briton had a half-chance to make it work at Turn 7 with 10 laps to go, but never truly had an opening as Verstappen covered the position well.

Norris followed Verstappen home in DRS range to complete the podium, as Piastri clinched fourth to secure McLaren’s title; the Australian overcame his fury at the first-lap skirmish with Norris to close up to the podium places, but couldn’t break beyond the two-second buffer to Norris.

Lando Norris, McLaren

Photo by: Steven Tee / LAT Images via Getty Images

Andrea Kimi Antonelli finished fifth after losing a couple of positions at the start to Norris and Charles Leclerc, but later passed the Monegasque to rescue one of the lost places. Leclerc had later lost a place to Ferrari team-mate Lewis Hamilton when the seven-time champion stopped for a second time for soft tyres, but regained sixth when Hamilton ran out of brakes at the end of the race.

With a lap to go, Hamilton was 43.9 seconds clear of Fernando Alonso, who battled through a slow pitstop to make his way back up to eighth, but only finished 0.4s ahead in seventh as he limped home with no stopping power. However, Hamilton was placed under investigation for exceeding the number of allowed track limits violations.

Oliver Bearman finished the race in ninth place ahead of Carlos Sainz, who did a 50-lap stint on medium tyres from 18th on the grid to work his way into the points.