Lando Norris lit the fuse at the start in Singapore, and somehow all three walked away unscathed. The McLaren driver tagged Max Verstappen under braking into Turn 1, jolted into Oscar Piastri on the outside, and then carried on to finish third behind Verstappen and race winner George Russell. It made for a messy, gripping opening act and a thorny debrief at McLaren.
The stewards called it a racing incident. Sky F1’s Anthony Davidson didn’t. The ex-F1 racer laid the blame largely at Norris’ door, arguing the McLaren man misjudged the narrowing gap while still trying to slow the car for the right-left. Verstappen, he noted, was slower mid-corner; Norris was still turning when he hit the Red Bull; the steering wheel snapped, and Norris then banged wheels with Piastri. “Audacious, brave, but more his fault,” was Davidson’s verdict, adding he was surprised Norris escaped even a black-and-white warning.
You didn’t need telemetry to see how fine the margins were. Singapore’s first chicane always funnels ambition into a funnel of carbon fiber; Norris arrived at the apex boxed in by Verstappen and his teammate with nowhere to go but through. Verstappen, focused on his own line, took a measured entry. Piastri, keenly aware he was outside his teammate, left space. It still wasn’t enough. The McLaren clipped the Red Bull, then ricocheted out toward Piastri, whose car took the heavier punch and a proper jolt to the headrest.
Piastri, understandably, was unimpressed. He felt Norris did a “pretty **** job” of avoiding him and wasn’t thrilled McLaren didn’t swap the cars back once Norris emerged ahead in P3. That decision will sting more than the contact. Track position is king in Marina Bay, and the start is half the race; if you lose out there, you’re rarely getting it back. McLaren knows it. So does Piastri.
The stewards, meanwhile, stayed out of it. There’s a familiar dance here: when teammates collide without obvious malice and everyone survives, Race Control often leaves the team to handle the fallout. Davidson floated exactly that possibility, even as he argued Norris deserved at least a reprimand. Whether that leniency was wise is another question. The contact wasn’t catastrophic, but it was the second touch that tipped the whole sequence into the ugly zone — first the Red Bull’s rear, then the sister McLaren’s flank.
Does that matter now that the podium’s in the books? Inside McLaren, yes. This is a front-running team with two quick drivers, and the tone you set on a night like this tends to echo. Norris’ aggression at starts has been part of what’s made him a threat this season; Piastri’s calm racecraft has kept him right there with him. You don’t want either to blink. You do want both to finish.
So where did that leave everyone by the flag? Russell claimed his second victory of the season for Mercedes with a measured, high-grip drive — the tidy kind of win that used to be standard issue around here. Verstappen salvaged second after the first-corner tap, Norris completed the podium, and Piastri brought it home just behind having cut through the irritation to bank points.
If you’re looking for villains, you’ll be searching a while. Norris took a risk into a tightening gap and misjudged his braking while still rotating; Verstappen wasn’t obliged to leave him room he hadn’t earned; Piastri gave what he could on a shrinking outside line. Singapore doesn’t do neat. It does pressure. That’s why the opening 10 seconds decide so much of the next two hours — and why the debriefs last longer than the cool-down lap.
McLaren’s review will be worth a listen. Do they protect the driver who forced the issue and kept his foot in, or back the one who did everything right on the outside and still got whacked? In truth, they’ll try to do both. But the subtext matters with a car this quick and a championship picture that refuses to calm down. Margins are thin. So is patience when you’ve got two podium contenders in orange.
Davidson’s technical read is the lesson here: you’ve only got 100 percent of grip to spend. Split it between turning and braking and the maths can betray you, especially when the car ahead is slower than you expect. Norris spent his budget early, then found Verstappen’s rear wing closer than planned and Piastri even closer still. The rest, as they say, was Marina Bay physics.
No penalties. No team orders on the day. Plenty to talk about before the next lights-out. And if McLaren’s drivers happen to start side-by-side again soon, it’ll be hard not to watch that mirror check — and the space that follows — just a little more closely.
