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Lando Norris wins the F1 Grand Prix of Singapore and intensifies the title fight with Max Verstappen

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Lando Norris wins his third Formula 1 race of the season and is 20 seconds ahead of Max Verstappen at the Singapore Grand Prix.

This reduces the gap in the drivers' standings to 52 points; Verstappen remains in the lead.

Norris was still in the lead at the end of the first lap and extended his lead over Verstappen to over 11.5 seconds by lap 17. But behind the leaders at the start, chaos ensued at Turn 1 as many cars went wide. Franco Colapinto fought his way into the top 10, a position he held until his pit stop on lap 30. Sergio Pérez struggled to overtake him for a while.

“He's very good,” the Red Bull driver said over the radio on lap 16. “Difficult to overtake, Colapinto.”

It was already clear in the early stages of the Singapore GP that the undercut looked strong. This involves a car pitting ahead of the cars in front to gain an advantage.

Lewis Hamilton was among the first frontrunners to pit, changing his soft tyres for hard tyres on lap 19. However, he later said over the radio that he felt they would struggle later on, adding that he had already struggled on the hard tyres on lap 23. The Singapore GP is traditionally a one-stop race unless the race is neutralised.

Norris looked set to pull away and build a sizeable lead, but on lap 30 he radioed that his front wing was damaged and he was slowing down. However, when he pitted, McLaren did not change his front wing – they just adjusted the settings and swapped the medium tyres for the hard compound. Norris was later told over the radio that it was a “minor issue but nothing serious”.

All eyes were on Oscar Piastri as the race entered the middle stages. George Russell pitted on lap 29 and the McLaren driver was lurking behind him. Piastri began to take lap time off Verstappen and moved into second place when the Dutchman pitted. But the McLaren driver felt his tyres fading and finally switched to hard tyres on lap 39. It was a late pit stop, a brave move by McLaren on a track where overtaking can be difficult. But he did have a notable tyre offset.

Piastri left the pits behind the Mercedes duo and immediately overtook Hamilton. He set off to chase Russell and try to secure the final podium spot. On lap 45, he managed to overtake the Silver Arrow in turn 4, overtaking him in the long run.

From there, the race settled down. Norris had a close call when he clipped the wall, the same spot where Russell crashed last year, but soon after he set a fastest lap, almost two seconds faster than Verstappen's previous lap. Meanwhile, Pérez reported over the radio that he had no grip and was “hopping like a kangaroo”.

Colapinto was hot on his heels and put the Red Bull under pressure, but the Williams driver ultimately finished outside the points and was never able to overtake Pérez.

In a surprising twist at the end, Daniel Ricciardo pitted for a third time in the final few laps and switched to a set of soft tyres. He went flying and Norris was setting the fastest lap of the race at that point. Ricciardo set the fastest lap instead, denying Norris' chance of his first Grand Slam.

This is how the top 10 ended up:

  1. Lando Norris
  2. Max Verstappen
  3. Oscar Piastri
  4. George Russell
  5. Charles Leclerc
  6. Lewis Hamilton
  7. Carlos Sainz
  8. Fernando Alonso
  9. Nico Hulkenberg
  10. Sergio Perez

This is an evolving story.

Top photo: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

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