Great that Sainz stayed on the podium.

Lando a little unlucky but it's still more his own fault that, he was down there in the first place due to a mistake in quali, going backwards at the start and backwards at the restart. A missed opportunity.

Can either of them deal with the pressure? Not the forgone conclusion it looked with 50 points for Max.

Max back in the title hunt?

We will see, I hope Max is back in this for real. Piastri probably will have a time penalty carry over to Singapore.

Max might have a chance. 69 points behind with 7 races to go and 3 sprints.

Verstappen has led more laps this season than Norris has.

I really doubt Max is seriously back in contention. Even if he won all the remaining races Piastri would beat him if he finished second every time. Just too big a gap.

And whilst the Red Bull has clearly improved, the last two tracks are high speed one they've traditionally done well at. Remains to be seen if somewhere like the high downforce Singapore will remain a difficult track for them and just how they'll compare on yhe medium-hgh speed tracks like Qatar etc.

He'll cause problems for the two McLaren drivers though which should be entertaining.

Max now sits joint second with Lewis for most Grand Slams, just two behind Jim Clark.

Of course Singapore has been an difficult track for Red Bull in recent years.

On SkyBet Max's odds of winning the title have shortened from 28/1 pre-Baku to 15/2 now 😆 I still have a tenner on him to win at the start of the season where the odds were 5/2.

The constructor's is getting very interesting for 2nd place too. I really though Ferrari would easily take it given they have 2 drivers always/around the points but they're doing their utmost to screw it up as usual. A few more good races for Antonelli & Tsunoda and they could easily slip to 4th by season end.

In January, who would have thought Verstappen would have won as many races in a Ferrari as Lewis Hamilton has this year

RIP Roscoe 😭

It seems there are 3 drivers who can win the F1 Drivers Championship in 2025.

Who do you think is going to win and why?

If Max finally wins in Singapore it'd be difficult to back against him tbh. McLaren look like they're about to implode...

But if the Red Bull hot streak runs out of steam then it'll be Norris as McLaren will make sure their golden boy wins it.

Scattered thunderstorms in the forecast all weekend.

That's good^ Singapore is only ever interesting when it rains. See 2017 & 2022.

Of the three title contenders -

Piastri - The most level headed driver of the three, on the whole, and whilst he's probably the least quick of them, he has great pace, excellent wheel to wheel combat skills and fine racecraft. Tyre management has previously been a weakness but that looks to be under control. Remains to be seen if Baku was just an off weekend or if the pressure is starting to be felt.

Norris - The fastest of the two McLaren drivers but he is questionable at decision making and prone to unforced errors. Undoubtedly feels the pressure, has self doubt and can be easily flustered.

Verstappen - The best driver on the grid, ruthless on track and has complete self belief in his abilities. Knows how to win a championship and knows the rules and how far he can push them.

Piastri needs to pressurise and impose himself over Norris and stay composed. If he does that he can extend his lead gradually. McLaren need to be wary of Verstappen and may find they need to back one driver towards the end. Piastri needs to stay ahead of Norris until then if he wants that to be him.

Norris has the speed but he needs to cut out the errors and up his game to win. The deficit is small enough to overcome and it does feel like McLaren would prefer him to be the champion of the two.

Verstappen needs the Red Bull upgrade to be competitive on every type of circuit not just the high speed tracks. Tsunoda may yet figure but It's pretty much two against one, if Verstappen can get between them he can disrupt their strategy and influence the outcome, perhaps in his favour. The season finale is probably three races too soon to overcome the deficit but he can have an impact and hope to replicate Prost's 1986 or Raikkonnen's 2007 win (select your preference on that one). Another wonder lap in Qualifying at Singapore could really ramp up the pressure and open it up for the win.

Too hard to call it outright yet but I've said Piastri since day one so I'm sticking with it. I even bought the 1:43 scale model for the display cabinet back in April

1 hour ago, Dobbo said:

That's good^ Singapore is only ever interesting when it rains. See 2017 & 2022.

2009 showed there are other ways to make it interesting 😅

2009 weren't it 2008 with an certain crash and the Massa bloated pitstop.

2 hours ago, DJHazey said:

Scattered thunderstorms in the forecast all weekend.

Expect delays in for qualifying and the race if raining heavily.

5 hours ago, Mack said:

2009 weren't it 2008 with an certain crash and the Massa bloated pitstop.

It was but it all became known in 2009. Maybe i could've worded it better.

To be fair I just remembered 2023 was great but only because Red Bull decided to have their one off weekend of the season.