SINGAPORE: George Russell drove a flawless race from pole position to win the Singapore Grand Prix for Mercedes on Sunday ahead of Red Bull's world champion Max Verstappen.

Briton Russell took the chequered flag under the lights of the Marina Bay street circuit 5.4 seconds clear of Verstappen to claim his second victory of the season.

Lando Norris put pressure on Verstappen towards the end of the race but had to settle for third ahead of teammate Oscar Piastri, the pair earning enough points to seal a second consecutive constructors' title for McLaren.

Piastri's lead over Briton Norris in the drivers' standings was cut to 22 points, while Verstappen is 63 points behind the Australian with six races remaining in the season.

The celebrations for the constructors' title in the McLaren garage might be muted, however, with Piastri fuming at the way Norris forced his way past his teammate on the opening corner.

Kimi Antonelli was a distant fifth in the other Mercedes with Charles Leclerc sixth ahead of his Ferrari teammate Lewis Hamilton.
Fernando Alonso was eighth for Aston Martin, while Haas driver Oliver Bearman and Carlos Sainz, who started at the back of the grid after the Williams cars were disqualified from qualifying, took the final points in ninth and 10th.

Russell got away to a clean start from pole with Verstappen behind him but Norris, who started fifth, clipped the back of the Dutchman's Red Bull as he forced his way up the inside of Piastri on the first corner.

Norris sustained some damage to the front end of his car and Piastri expressed his discontent on the team radio at his teammate's manoeuvre, accusing the Briton of "barging him out of the way".

The stewards gave the incident the all clear and McLaren said they would look at it after the race with Piastri again railing at what he said was the unfairness of the decision.

Verstappen was the first of the leaders to pit and tore around the track to ensure Norris would not be able to undercut him when the Briton changed his tyres seven laps later.

Norris asserted his right as McLaren's lead driver to pit ahead of Piastri, whose discontent with the team would not have been improved by a notably slower stop than his teammate.

Verstappen was 3.5 seconds behind Russell at the halfway stage and ended the race clinging on to keep second place from Norris rather than chasing a third straight race win.

Articles tagged with "Singapore Grand Prix\"

George Russell wins Singapore Grand Prix, McLaren take constructors' title