Russell dominates Singapore GP as Piastri fumes after Norris clash

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George Russell dominated the Singapore Grand Prix as Lando Norris trimmed Oscar Piastri’s championship lead after the McLaren pair made contact early on.

Norris had a storming start but lightly collided with team-mate Piastri on the opening lap to take third where he would finish the race, behind Max Verstappen following a hard-fought battle for second.

Piastri had to settle for fourth and sees his advantage over Norris cut to 22 points in the title race but McLaren sealed the defence of their Constructors’ Championship with six rounds to go – a joint-record for the earliest that title has been won.

The celebrations were slightly overshadowed though by the early McLaren drama where Norris got his elbows out from fifth on the grid by overtaking Kimi Antonelli immediately and then team-mate Piastri into Turn 3, brushing the back of Verstappen and, crucially, nudging Piastri out wide.

The Australian was furious with the move, stating “that’s not fair” on the radio and hinted Norris had broken McLaren’s racing rules of engagement.

The top four finished where they ended the first lap as Russell waltzed to his second win of the year, following his triumph in June’s Canadian Grand Prix, and Verstappen held off Norris to also trim his deficit to Piastri to 63 points.

Piastri suffered a slow pit stop which prevented him from joining the podium battle, with Kimi Antonelli taking fifth on his first Singapore outing.

Lewis Hamilton suffered a late brake issue but just managed to finish the race in seventh, behind Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc.

However, Hamilton is under investigation for exceeding track limits on the last lap as he battled Fernando Alonso who recovered from a slow pit stop to finish eighth ahead of Haas’ Oliver Bearman and Williams’ Carlos Sainz who made use of the alternative strategy by running long in the first stint.

Norris’ bold overtake leaves Piastri furious

McLaren’s 10th Constructors’ Championship is a testament to the culture and environment created by McLaren chief executive Zak Brown and team principal Andrea Stella but the pair perhaps face their biggest test yet following Norris’ aggressive overtake on Piastri on the opening lap.

Norris suffered minor front wing damage but was able to continue without pitting after brushing the back of Verstappen and making side to side contact with Piastri, who nearly also tapped the wall and made his feelings clear on the radio.

Piastri: “So are we cool with Lando just barging me out of the way or? What’s the go there?”

Piastri’s engineer Tom Stallard: “We’re looking at it. Let me get back to you.”

Stallard later says: “No further action from the stewards. As a team, we can see Lando had to avoid Verstappen, so we won’t take any action during the race. We can review further afterwards.”

Piastri responded: “That’s not fair. I’m sorry, that’s not fair. If he has to avoid another car by crashing into his team-mate, then that’s a pretty **** job of avoiding.”

Although McLaren have never made their ‘Papaya Rules’, also known as racing rules of engagement, public, it’s largely thought that contact is not allowed between the duo. Piastri was warned about nearly hitting Norris in Austria and Hungary, which underlines this.

The move largely dictated where the McLarens finished given overtaking was so difficult around the tight Marina Bay Street Circuit.

Norris tried to put pressure on Verstappen, who started on the softs compared to the other front-runners on mediums, during the first stint but was unable to get close enough.

A similar pattern followed when the drivers pitted for the hard tyres but Norris could not make a serious overtaking attempt despite running within one second of Verstappen for most of the last 15 laps.

Piastri ran in a lonely fourth as he did not quite have the pace of the cars in front and was also hurt by a 5.2-second pit stop, the third consecutive race McLaren have suffered a slow stop.

At the front, Russell controlled proceedings and, other than calling for blue flags when going through traffic, never looked flustered.

F1’s title race now heads back to North America, with the United States Grand Prix in Austin up first on October 17-19 live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime

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