DHL FASTEST PIT STOP AWARD

Singapore victory with DHL Fastest Pit Stop: McLaren practically sweep the board

It was immediately obvious right from FP1 and the get go that beating McLaren and Lando Norris at Singapore would be nigh on impossible this year. And his fine form was set to continue as Sunday’s race got underway. At the close of play, with just a small amount of luck on his side, Norris did not need to rely on his mechanics delivering another top-class performance, as the guys were not prepared to let anyone snatch the DHL Fastest Pit Stop from their grasp!

Norris had dominated qualifying and was still in the lead after the opening lap in the race itself for the first time in his career. From that point onwards, it became more or less clear that none of the other 19 drivers out on the track would become a threat to him – he was able to pull away from all of them up until his first and only pit stop.

But he was his own worst enemy. He left braking too late in Turn 14 on Lap 29, causing him to almost completely stuff his front wing into the TecPro barrier. There was some contact, and over the space of one lap, his mechanics had to maintain a state of high alert and be ready to change his front wing in an emergency, which would have been possible thanks to his enormous lead at that point.

But that wasn’t necessary, as the data showed no problems and the driver himself didn’t feel that anything was amiss. And then on Lap 30 when Norris came in to bolt on hard tires, McLaren’s mechanics also found themselves gripped by the need to deliver a perfect performance just like their man, Norris. He was back on the road after just 2.11 seconds! This was McLaren’s second DHL Fastest Pit Stop of the season, so now they are just four points behind Ferrari in the overall standings.

In the end, Norris only needed the DHL Fastest Lap to give him a clean sweep in a perfect race that he led from pole position despite lightly grazing the wall in a superb lights-to-flag victory. “I’m so happy with today,” said Norris. “It was an amazing performance from the team. The car was mega so I could push. We were almost throughout the whole race, and at the end, I could focus to see it out. It was still a very tough race with a few too many close calls. It was very easy to lock-up a tire – which I did a couple of times, but I was pushing because I wanted to have the biggest lead possible.”