Singapore, Sep 22 (IANS): McLaren's Lando Norris delivered a dominating drive to claim victory in the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday. The British driver, who started on pole, finished 20 seconds clear of championship leader Max Verstappen to further reduce the lead in driver standings.

Norris banished the memories of previous poor starts from the front of the grid to slot ahead of Verstappen at Turn 1 and control the opening laps, before romping clear and spending most of the encounter in a league of his own – a couple of brushes with the wall aside.

With no answer to Norris’ raw pace, Verstappen had to settle for a distant second position while Oscar Piastri’s rise from fifth to third – and a lowly points finish for Sergio Perez – means McLaren move further ahead of Red Bull in the constructors’ standings.

Piastri stayed out longer than anyone else in the first stint and charged his way past Mercedes pair Lewis Hamilton and George Russell with fresher tyres, something Charles Leclerc – as another late stopper – tried to repeat across the closing laps.

Leclerc overtook Hamilton with relative ease but could not quite do the same to Russell before the chequered flag dropped, leaving the Ferrari man in a Silver Arrows sandwich – teammate Carlos Sainz recovering from his qualifying crash to take seventh.

Fernando Alonso added some more points to Aston Martin’s tally in eighth, with Nico Hulkenberg giving Haas something to celebrate in ninth, as the aforementioned Perez – having been knocked out in the second qualifying phase – completed the top 10 places.

Franco Colapinto added to his impressive drives in Italy and Azerbaijan en route to P11, just a couple of seconds away from Perez and a points reward, followed by the lead RB and Alpine cars of Yuki Tsunoda and Esteban Ocon, and the second Aston Martin machine of Lance Stroll.

Kick Sauber drivers Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas crossed the line in 15th and 16th respectively, taking advantage of a difficult race for Pierre Gasly in the other Alpine and a three-stop affair for RB’s Daniel Ricciardo, who set the fastest lap after a late move to soft tyres.

Alex Albon lost a hatful of positions at the start when he felt he was forced wide by Williams teammate Colapinto and later retired due to an overheating car, with the Haas of Kevin Magnussen joining him on the DNF list at the end of the race after picking up a puncture.

Norris punched the air in delight as the podium finishers pulled up in parc ferme, having cut Verstappen’s title lead from 59 points to 52. McLaren, meanwhile, depart Singapore with an increased 41-point advantage over Red Bull in the constructors’.