English driver Lando Norris (McLaren) took the victory at the Singapore Grand Prix, the 18th race of the Formula 1 World Championship, at the Marina Bay street circuit. He trimmed seven points off the lead of triple world champion Max Verstappen (Red Bull). The Dutchman handled the pressure and finished second in the night race, where the Spanish drivers Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) and Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) finished seventh and eighth, respectively.

Norris, 24, who started from pole position, claimed his third win in F1—his third this year after victories in Miami (USA) and another ahead of Verstappen, who held onto second place on the grid. His McLaren teammate, Australian Oscar Piastri, finished third in a race where Mexican Sergio Pérez (Red Bull) finished 10th, just one spot ahead of Argentine Franco Colapinto (Williams).

Lando cruised to the win with ease, leading from start to finish. He didn’t leave Singapore with a ‘Grand Chelem’ (pole, fastest lap, win, and leading every lap) though, because on the final lap, Australian Daniel Ricciardo, a Red Bull driver (from their junior team), most likely racing in his final F1 appearance, snatched the fastest lap and the extra point from the talented Bristol driver.

With six races and three sprint events left, Verstappen leads the championship with 331 points, 51 more than Norris, and 86 ahead of Monaco's Charles Leclerc, who held onto third in the standings after climbing four spots to finish fifth in Marina Bay, just behind Britain’s George Russell (Mercedes).

With Norris’s win and Piastri’s rising form (he won the previous week in Baku), McLaren solidified their lead in the Constructors' Championship, which they had snatched from Red Bull a few days ago in Azerbaijan. Woking now leads with 516 points, 41 ahead of the Austrian team and just 34 ahead of Ferrari.

Norris, who had also been the fastest in Friday’s session, secured his sixth F1 pole on Saturday, his fifth of the season, putting even more pressure on Verstappen, who managed to hold on to second in qualifying. The two locked out the front row ahead of the Mercedes duo, with Hamilton starting third and Russell just behind.

Norris is having the best season of his career, while ‘Mad Max’ reminded everyone that, despite doubts, he’s still very much alive in the fight—proving that being a triple world champion is no fluke. Now, he has three weeks to try to recover the performance he lost in the Red Bull, where his last win—his seventh of the year—came nine races ago at the Spanish Grand Prix in Montmeló (Barcelona).

The championship will resume with the United States Grand Prix on October 20 at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, kicking off a triple-header that will continue in Mexico and Brazil over the following two weeks.