Did Ricciardo just become the fifth F1 driver to set fastest lap in his final race? · RaceFans

Lando Norris dominated the Singapore Grand Prix, main each lap of the race for the primary time in his profession.

He took pole place the day earlier than, ending Ferrari’s run of three consecutive poles on the Marina Bay circuit. Norris now has six profession poles and three grand prix victories, each matching the tallies of 1961 world champion Phil Hill. He additionally lastly stored his lead from pole place, one thing he did not do on all seven earlier makes an attempt.

Norris held the quickest lap of the race till Daniel Ricciardo nabbed it off him on the penultimate tour. Ricciardo completed properly outdoors of the highest 10, and due to this fact didn’t rating the bonus level which comes with it, so his workforce’s motivation for instructing him to set the quickest lap time was a trigger for some hypothesis.

Essentially the most important consequence of this for Norris was the lack of a doubtlessly very important championship level. Nevertheless it additionally price him the prospect to affix the elite group of drivers who achieved ‘grand slams’ throughout their careers: Main a race all through from pole place and setting the quickest lap. Fewer drivers have achieved grand slams than received world championships, and Norris would have been solely the twenty seventh driver in F1 historical past to take action.

Ricciardo’s late lap price Norris a degree and a ‘grand slam’

Ricciardo’s quickest lap was the primary for Purple Bull’s second workforce of their newest identification, RB. They scored two throughout their 83 races as AlphaTauri however just one in the course of the 268 races they contested as Toro Rosso. Ricciardo now has 17 quickest laps, matching the tally of Rubens Barrichello.

There’s widespread hypothesis Ricciardo is not going to return to the cockpit of the RB after this weekend. If that’s the case, he’ll grow to be the fifth driver in F1 historical past to finish his profession with a quickest lap.

Did Ricciardo know that was his remaining race however not inform anybody? Most drivers who ended their careers with a quickest lap didn’t comprehend it was their final race on the time. In actual fact the one driver who knew he signed off his profession with a quickest lap was Ricciardo’s fellow Australian Mark Webber, within the 2013 Brazilian Grand Prix.

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The opposite drivers all anticipated they’d extra races to run. Richie Ginther set the quickest lap within the 1966 Mexican Grand Prix, returned to race in Monaco the next 12 months, however did not qualify, and retired.

Mark Webber, Red Bull, Interlagos, 2013 — Webber bowed out with quickest lap at Interlagos

As you may anticipate the remaining two examples are extra unlucky. Onofre Marimon set the quickest lap within the British Grand Prix at Silverstone 70 years in the past, then was killed throughout follow two weeks later on the Nurburgring. And one of many all-time greats, Jim Clark, additionally died in a crash in Germany, three months after setting the quickest lap whereas profitable the F1 season-opener in South Africa.

Norris’ success means Max Verstappen nonetheless hasn’t taken a pole place or victory at this observe, regardless of having received at each different venue on the calendar. Purple Bull haven’t had a pole place in Singapore for greater than a decade.

This was McLaren’s second win within the Singapore Grand Prix, the one different coming courtesy of Lewis Hamilton 15 years in the past. They’ve now received 4 of the final six races, their finest fee since they did the identical between the 2008 Monaco and Hungarian grands prix.

Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, Singapore, 2009 — Hamilton scored McLaren’s solely different Singapore win

The fifteenth Singapore Grand Prix was the primary to run with no Security Automobile or Digital Security Automobile. Because of that, and the removing of 4 corners from the observe structure final 12 months, this was additionally the quickest Singapore Grand Prix of all time. Norris received at a mean pace of 182.090kph. That is faster than 4 different races this 12 months – the Monaco, Japanese, Canadian and Chinese language grands prix – although all of those have been disrupted by Security Automobiles or purple flags.

This was additionally the third Singapore Grand Prix in a row the place the identical driver led each lap of the race. Carlos Sainz Jnr did so final 12 months and Sergio Perez in 2022.

Lastly, Alexander Albon made his a hundredth look in a grand prix weekend. He has began 99 races, having participated in follow at Monza two years in the past then stepped down attributable to sickness. There was nothing to have fun for him this weekend, nevertheless: He was the one driver not labeled on the end.

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