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The driver who was first in the Singapore Grand Prix was an emphatic winner. The driver who was last is probably now out of Formula 1.
Both unsurprisingly feature in our picks of the weekend's big winners and losers.
WINNER: LANDO NORRIS
It may prove to all be coming too late to make a difference in the title fight (or perhaps not so much too late as too irregularly), but Norris is definitely erasing all doubts about whether he can control a grand prix and see it through to the finish.
The ‘choker’ talk is pretty muted now.
From final practice onwards he never looked like losing this race, and didn’t even appear to rattle himself with those wall brushes.
Now he just has to do it another six times (plus in three sprints) and he might, might, might be world champion. - Matt Beer
LOSER: DANIEL RICCIARDO
It was impossible not to watch Daniel Ricciardo's post-race interviews without the impression that a last-place finish in Singapore will mark the end of his glittering F1 career.
And that's a huge shame when you consider what a limp end it would be - running last or second last for much of the race and then serving the sole purpose of assisting Max Verstappen's championship charge.
He did that Verstappen assistance beautifully with a well-executed fastest lap bonus point stealing from Norris.
But it's such a pitiful way for Ricciardo's season and F1 career to end should Liam Lawson replace him from Austin. He hasn't had nearly enough highs to achieve his goal of a Red Bull return, and there have been other lows similar to today in Singapore, but there have been nowhere near as many at RB as during his McLaren nightmare.
Singapore was the worst-case manifestation of Ricciardo's struggles this year and so far short of a repeat of the heroic highs of Miami and Canada that a strong Friday promised. - Josh Suttill
WINNER: MAX VERSTAPPEN
It’s an odd situation when being left standing by your title rival all weekend counts as a ‘win’. But looking at the relative performances of the top cars in Singapore, Verstappen really shouldn’t have been second. That he was isn’t totally down to his own efforts - he benefited from a few balls being dropped elsewhere too. But he needn’t care too much about that, all that mattered was that this was only a seven-point swing on a day when it might’ve been far, far more.
Still 52 points clear and with a month for Red Bull to work on more upgrades now. This could be a lot worse given how long it is since Verstappen was dominant - or even looked like he might win a grand prix. - MB
LOSER: SERGIO PEREZ
It's a really good job Ricciardo hasn't performed while being Red Bull's "banker" (in Christian Horner’s words) for Sergio Perez this year. Because these are the kinds of weekends that mean Perez wouldn't still be Verstappen's team-mate if there was even a semi-suitable replacement.
It's a shame given he was so strong in Baku last week. But that's unfortunately looking like the 2024 outlier weekend. Singapore’s early qualifying exit then spending the race stuck in the midfield pattern is much more normal.
And on a street track too where Perez emerged victorious just two years ago!
It started so promisingly too with three positions made on a great first lap. But zero progress was made thereafter and it's about as limp a point (singular) finish as you can get.
When Red Bull sits down to review who sits in its four cockpits after the autumn break, Perez won't be 100% safe from scrutiny despite the equal limpness of his main potential replacement. And things could have been so different if he properly followed up what he did in Baku. - JS
WINNER: NICO HULKENBERG
Sixth on the grid, only a tenth and a half off a McLaren (albeit the one that was underperforming a bit not the dominant one), was an excellent effort from Nico Hulkenberg and Haas on Saturday.
And it was such an obvious overperformance that there’s no shame at all in being shuffled back to ninth on race day.
It edges Haas a touch closer to struggling RB for sixth in the championship and a little further away from rising Williams, and is exactly what it needs its drivers to be delivering in that tight battle. - MB
LOSER: MERCEDES
Mercedes turned a second-row lockout (if there is such a thing) into fourth and sixth in the race. Which is never a good return on a street circuit.
But worse than the result is the pace and execution.
Lewis Hamilton's strategy of starting on softs left him struggling from early on, losing track position and a tyre offset to those he was racing. That was bad enough.
But there simply wasn't much performance in the car either, so Mercedes was barely clinging on to being third-best.
The team did really well to recover from a terrible Friday to ace qualifying, but maybe in hindsight all it did was overachieve a little - helped by Ferrari capitulating and Oscar Piastri making a mistake - then regress to its actual level on Sunday.
Ultimately, Mercedes was fourth-best here. And a long way off at the end of the race. By its own admission, this turned out to be a tough weekend. - Scott Mitchell-Malm
WINNER: FERNANDO ALONSO
Fernando Alonso spent much of practice getting attention for lurid slides, big saves, and amusing radio messages. Such is life with a recalcitrant Aston Martin.
But come qualifying he nailed it, getting into Q3 at the expense of two Williams cars he slightly generously claimed are "half a second in front of us".
And he was superb in the race, biding his time before maximising his opportunities around the sole pitstops for everyone he was racing, to achieve the best result possible.
Team-mate Lance Stroll had a very poor weekend that made the car look like a backmarker. It wasn't quite that bad but it was also not as good as Alonso made it look as, once again, the winning midfielder. - SMM
LOSER: ALEX ALBON
There's an unfamiliar feeling for Alex Albon: big sustained pressure from a Williams team-mate.
And it's something he felt with great intensity on the opening lap, as while Franco Colapinto made his beautiful divebomb to vault into the points, Albon took to the run-off and tumbled down the order.
He was initially furious with Colapinto's move but lap one replays showed Albon's off wasn't as a direct consequence of his team-mate and Albon was more sanguine post-race than he had been on the radio at first.
Things went from bad to worse thereafter with overheating power unit issues in the first stint followed by a terminal issue shortly into the second stint. - JS
WINNER: FRANCO COLAPINTO
Another strong chapter in Franco Colapinto's surprise F1 part-season which started with a brilliant first corner dive-bomb that jumped him from 12th to ninth.
He stayed there throughout the first stint and although he was undercut back down to 11th, Colapinto held his own well and even kept Sergio Perez honest for 10th.
Colapinto essentially ran much of his race in a Williams like-for-like with Perez in a Red Bull. If you didn't know who was in the sole Williams in a race, you'd be forgiven for thinking it was Albon given the strength of the well-executed midfield drive.
No points to show for it this time but he's added another reason why it would be an injustice if Colapinto doesn't have a place on the 2025 grid. - JS
LOSER: FERRARI
OK, Charles Leclerc came back through pretty well to split the Mercedes and finish fifth.
But Ferrari won in Singapore last year. It won in Monaco this year. It probably should’ve won in Baku last week (and it did win at Monza, less relevant in terms of circuit characteristics but at least recent!).
This shouldn’t have been a weekend where it wasn’t really in the podium fight and nowhere near victory contention, and on Friday it didn’t look like it would be. Then a really messy qualifying wasted it all.
Incomprehensible dips and squandered chances like this show why it’s McLaren that’s ended up capitalising on Red Bull’s slump rather than Ferrari, even though Ferrari started this season looking like the champion squad’s biggest threat. - MB
LOSER: KEVIN MAGNUSSEN
While Kevin Magnusssen was sitting out Baku due to his race ban, his car outqualified Hulkenberg’s and finished ahead in the race too in rookie Ollie Bearman’s hands.
When Magnussen returned for Singapore, Hulkenberg qualified eight places ahead and was running six places in front when Magnussen wrecked his race with a wall brush.
And that’s why Magnussen will be sitting out all of the 2025 F1 season. - MB
