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.
