McLaren beats Red Bull by 0.03 seconds in the pit lane

McLaren did not only score its fifth victory of the 2024 F1 season, but it also completed the quickest tyre change at last Sunday's Singapore Grand Prix.

It was immediately obvious right from opening practice session on Friday and the get go that beating McLaren and Lando Norris at Singapore would be nigh on impossible this year.

And his fine form was set to continue as Sunday’s race got underway. Having secure pole position on Saturday, Norris maintained the lead at the start of the Singapore Grand Prix. The Briton quickly confirmed his dominance at the Marina Bay Circuit, steadily creating a gap between himself and his closest challenger Max Verstappen.

It quickly became obvious that the victory was his to lose. The McLaren man was eager to build up a huge gap, and his effort saw him make a few mistakes. He left braking too late in Turn 14 on Lap 29, causing him to almost completely stuff his front wing into the TecPro barrier.

Over the space of one lap, his mechanics had to maintain a state of high alert and be ready to change his front wing in an emergency, which would have been possible thanks to his enormous lead at that point. But that wasn’t necessary, as the data showed no problems and the driver himself didn’t feel that anything was amiss.

His excellent tyre management allowed Norris to extend his first stint compared to Verstappen and the McLaren drivers George Russell and Lewis Hamilton. He came in for his sole tyre service on Lap 30. McLaren's mechanics completed an extremely quick pit stop, bolting on a set of fresh hard tyres in just 2.11 seconds.

This performance saw McLaren complete the quickest pit stop of the Singapore race, securing the second DHL Fastest Pit Stop of the season. Red Bull performed the second quickest tyre service when bolting on a new set of hards on Sergio Perez's car in just 2.14s. Mercedes followed closely with the third-quickest tyre change, with Ferrari achieving the fourth-fastest tyre service.