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POWER RANKINGS: Who lit up the streets during F1’s latest visit to Singapore?
Singapore’s Marina Bay Street Circuit was the scene for another display of supreme driving skill last weekend, but which drivers wowed our Power Rankings judges? Scroll down to check out the latest scores and the overall season leaderboard...
How it works
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Our five-judge panel assess each driver after every Grand Prix and score them out of 10 according to their performance across the weekend – taking machinery out of the equation
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Our experts’ scores are then averaged out to produce a race score – with those scores then tallied up across the season on our overall Power Rankings Leaderboard (at the bottom of the page)
READ MORE: Norris dominates Singapore GP to cut Verstappen’s title lead again
After an unfortunate Q1 exit in Azerbaijan, Lando Norris made the Singapore streets his own by charging to pole position over championship rival Max Verstappen. Amid all the questions about his previous, compromised getaways from the front of the grid, the Briton nailed the opening lap this time out and never looked back. He was, quite simply, in a league of his own – even if there were a couple of brushes with the walls.
Verstappen started the Marina Bay event fearing the worst, with the Dutchman and team mate Sergio Perez lamenting the poor balance of their RB20s after Friday’s practice sessions. But while Perez’s struggles continued into the weekend, Verstappen got things moving in the right direction on his side of the garage to emerge with an impressive P2 in qualifying and the race – limiting the damage in the title fight.
As he has done so often this season and throughout his F1 career, Nico Hulkenberg starred in qualifying to line up a brilliant sixth on the grid for Haas. It was always going to be a big ask to keep that position in the race, given Fernando Alonso and the Ferraris were starting just behind, but ninth represented another very welcome reward for himself and Ayao Komatsu’s team in their quest to finish P6 in the constructors’ standings.
In similar style to Baku, Alonso appeared to extract everything he could from Aston Martin’s package at Marina Bay, making it into the top 10 shootout and converting that effort into more points on race day. Starting seventh, Alonso would gain a place on the aforementioned Hulkenberg, but the recovering Ferraris meant eighth was the limit – a fine return given his car’s current limitations.
Leclerc enjoyed a strong start in Singapore by topping FP1 and finishing second in FP2, only for his and Ferrari’s weekend to be derailed in qualifying amid tyre temperature struggles. Starting ninth after losing his sole Q3 time over track limits, Leclerc battled past the likes of Hulkenberg and Alonso before going long on his first stint. He emerged in seventh but turned that into P5 thanks to team mate Carlos Sainz moving aside and his clear tyre advantage over Lewis Hamilton.
Piastri was frustrated with himself after Saturday’s qualifying session, admitting he did a “pretty poor job” en route to fifth position – more than four-tenths slower than pole-sitting team mate Norris. However, the Australian dusted himself down and came back determined to right those wrongs in the race, staying out longer than anyone else and picking off Mercedes pair Hamilton and George Russell on his much fresher tyres. With the other Red Bull of Perez only 10th, Piastri’s efforts helped McLaren move further ahead in the constructors’ battle.
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Amid the heat, humidity and tight confines of the Marina Bay track, Franco Colapinto delivered another composed performance in what is becoming a superb stand-in display at Williams. All but matching team mate Alex Albon in qualifying, the Argentinian muscled his way past at the start and ran inside the points for a chunk of the race. An undercut from Perez agonisingly dropped him to P11, but the rookie could walk away proud of his efforts for the third successive weekend.
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Mercedes came alive in the final stages of qualifying to secure a surprise third and fourth on the grid with Hamilton and Russell respectively. While Hamilton opted for softs at the start, Russell went for the more popular medium-shod approach, something that paid off as strategies unfolded over 62 punishing laps. While he could do nothing to stop Piastri from passing for the final podium spot, Russell kept Leclerc at bay late on to take a well-earned P4.
AS IT HAPPENED: Follow all the action from the Singapore GP as Norris beats Verstappen
Hamilton put some tough qualifying days behind him to join Norris and Verstappen in the top three in Singapore – his car doing what he wanted over one lap “for the first time in a long time”. He tried to keep the McLaren and Red Bull machines in sight in the opening laps, aided by his starting set of softs, but fell out of podium contention via a particularly early stop that he questioned over the radio. In the end, P6, ahead of Sainz’s Ferrari, was a solid result.
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Sainz’s weekend took a dramatic turn for the worse when he lost control of his Ferrari in the early stages of Q3 and slammed rearward into the barriers – giving mechanics plenty of work to do overnight. He made steady progress from his P10 grid slot, eventually crossing the line in seventh to salvage a few points and add to team mate Leclerc’s tally.
Missing out
Zhou Guanyu just missed the Power Rankings top 10 cut for Singapore after beating Kick Sauber team mate Valtteri Bottas, Pierre Gasly’s Alpine and Daniel Ricciardo’s RB to the flag, with Esteban Ocon and Yuki Tsunoda also on the brink.
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