Marc Priestley explains what McLaren did during the Singapore Grand Prix that left everybody ‘confused’

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McLaren have the fastest car in Formula 1 at the moment, and it’s showing on track after Lando Norris won by the second-biggest margin of the season in Singapore.

The Brit crossed the line 20 seconds ahead of title rival Max Verstappen in what was a comfortable and crucial win in the championship fight.

The gap to his Dutch rival now sits at 52 points with seven rounds to go, meaning that Norris cannot afford to finish off the podium at all between now and the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix finale.

Should Verstappen retire from a race, it would see him thrust in as the favourite the rest of the way – a position he is yet to be in during his six-season career.

How McLaren ‘confused’ the grid with their pace in Singapore

In the opening stages of the Singapore Grand Prix, Norris was able to build a healthy margin at the front of the pack.

He had the measure of the rest of the field by over half a second per lap, which extended to a full second when he began to push.

No one had any answer for it, and it’s something that surprised some of the teams according to former F1 mechanic Marc Priestley, who spoke on his YouTube channel.

READ MORE: David Coulthard makes Ayrton Senna claim after Lando Norris’s Singapore Grand Prix victory

“McLaren’s car at the moment works well everywhere,” he said. “But on the high downforce circuits and its high downforce configuration with the big wings on, it just seems so much more efficient than any other car out there.

“In the opening laps of that grand prix, he was pulling away from Max Verstappen at quite some rate, I think it was more than half a second per lap.

“Everybody was confused about just how hard he was pushing and then once everything had got up to temperature and things were settled down, the team asked him then to push and build a gap.”

How McLaren desperately need their advantage in the closing stages of the season

As it stands, Verstappen only needs to finish second at every race, without the fastest lap to retain his world championship.

That’s even if Norris wins all six remaining races and takes the fastest lap in all of them – which is a lot of pressure on a driver.

But Verstappen cannot afford a slip-up and he knows that himself, with no margin for error and any retirement likely to see him wave goodbye to any silverware.

READ MORE: Mercedes were left ‘in the woods’ with Singapore Grand Prix tyre issue they couldn’t solve

The constructors’ championship heading to McLaren feels like a foregone conclusion at this stage, and Ferrari could yet overtake Red Bull too.

The reigning champion is probably going to have to do it all without his rear-gunner, Sergio Perez, who has struggled all year and has not been able to match what Oscar Piastri has achieved in the second McLaren.