P1racenews AI automatic summary:
McLaren retained the F1 Constructors’ Championship at the Singapore GP, but the achievement was somewhat shrouded by its drivers coming together on the opening lap.
McLaren retained the Formula 1 Constructors’ Championship at the Singapore Grand Prix, but the achievement was somewhat shrouded by its drivers coming together on the opening lap. The papaya squad secured the title for the second year running at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, with Lando Norris taking third place, enough to mathematically secure the ultimate prize again. Despite winning a consecutive teams’ championship for the first time since 1991, a blemish in its tight-knit ‘team first’ principles was potentially compromised at lights out. With Oscar Piastri looking to take second from a slow-starting Max Verstappen, the Australian was thwarted and subsequently sent into the path of Norris, who had jumped Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes off the line. Norris got alongside his team-mate halfway through the sweeping opening sequence and, having the inside line going through Turn 3, nudged Piastri wide having tapped the rear of Verstappen’s Red Bull ahead only mere seconds earlier. Piastri quickly took to his radio to tell race engineer Tom Stallard that the push wasn’t fair and “not very team-like”. When Stallard confirmed the stewards took no action and the status quo would remain, Piastri’s blood pressure seemed to soar as high as the Singapore temperature.
