Mark Hughes: McLaren's internal rivalry undid its Singapore GP

The McLaren was over 0.35sec off George Russell‘s Mercedes and Max Verstappen‘s Red Bull in qualifying. It had its usual mid-corner speed advantage, but the Singapore corners don’t go on long enough for that advantage over the Merc and Red Bull to have overcome its less-than-stellar performance under braking and over the kerbs. Neither was the McLaren’s superior control of rear tyre thermal degradation of much use in qualifying around a circuit with such short curves.

But put a few laps together, then the McLaren’s tyre usage comes into its own. On race day, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri had the fastest car on track, just like so many times before. But on this occasion, their qualifying positions on the second and third rows were more important than their race-day pace. With everyone on the faster one-stop strategy and around a circuit which needs a huge pace advantage to pull off an overtake, they were stuck. Norris’ third and Piastri’s fourth were nonetheless good enough to seal McLaren its second successive constructors’ championship. With six races still to go.

That strange dynamic of the fastest car not having track position allowed Russell to deliver what on paper looks to have been a totally dominant performance: pole, leading throughout, and a comfortable victory over Verstappen. Russell was indeed driving superbly and the car was working well. But it was only made to look dominant thanks to the protection of the wrong-tyred Verstappen between him and the faster McLarens.

Verstappen kept the McLarens from challenging Russell

With a damp track and the absolute necessity of getting ahead of Russell at the start if he was to have any chance of winning, Verstappen and the team had chosen to start on the soft tyre. Its greater traction off the line and its suitability to a damp track made it the logical choice for their situation. The Mercs, McLarens and Ferraris all started on the longer range – and faster – medium. It would be quicker than the soft after three-four laps, run for longer and thereby make the preferred one-stop strategy more comfortable.

Verstappen’s bid to take the lead at the start failed simply because the grip on the pole side of the grid was so much greater than that on the left that it didn’t much matter what tyres he had on. Russell was up and away. That hard-fought pole of the day before was gold dust around a track where you need to get track position immediately and where passing is next to impossible. Verstappen might have taken that pole – he was within a few hundredths with two corners to go – but that bid floundered on the disturbed air from Norris’ car making its way back to the pits. It was perhaps the decisive moment of the weekend, as Verstappen was forced to abandon.

“I knew as soon as I got away in front that Max would have to be giving those soft tyres a much easier time than I was giving my mediums,” said Russell of how fast he pulled away from the tyre-compromised Red Bull, which was now forming a protective barrier from attack by the faster McLarens.

From 9sec behind Russell, Verstappen pitted at the earliest opportunity – lap 19, just as soon as he’d cleared Fernando Alonso‘s Aston – to exchange the softs for hards. That protected his track position over the McLarens. But with Verstappen out of the way, Norris and Piastri began catching Russell at almost half a second per lap. Russell was by now struggling with overheating rear tyres and Mercedes brought him in on the 25th lap before the McLarens got too close.

The McLarens were not suffering with significant tyre deg. Verstappen’s pace on his new hards was only very slightly quicker than they were maintaining on their old mediums. So it was a little puzzling when Norris and Piastri were brought in immediately after Russell on laps 26 and 27 respectively. This was all about the lead team car getting pitstop priority.