McLaren credits reactive strategy for two-place Singapore gain

McLaren says it kept both cars out during the lap-39 virtual safety car in Singapore while Leclerc and Antonelli pitted. The team describes a race whose strategic picture shifted three times and credits its reactive calls with a combined two-place gain; both cars, it says, finished higher than they started.

McLaren’s debrief traces the plan to a long first stint. Hamilton stopped on lap 18, Antonelli on lap 23 and Leclerc on lap 24, while Norris and Piastri stayed out. McLaren brought Norris in for mediums on lap 32 and Piastri a lap later, aiming to shorten the second stint and attack with a tyre-age advantage. Norris rejoined 10 seconds behind Antonelli with a nine-lap tyre-age advantage, then cut three seconds from the gap over the next six laps.

The virtual safety car followed a clutch problem for Lance Stroll. Leclerc and Antonelli used it to convert to two-stop strategies, while Hamilton and both McLarens remained on track. McLaren said a stop would send Norris and Piastri back to fifth and sixth on tyres the same age as the cars ahead. The team said the first stint had shown how hard passing would be; staying out, with Hamilton also on track, kept open a chance to gain a place.

Once racing resumed, Norris was 12 seconds behind Hamilton. He cut the gap to five seconds by lap 46 and reached Overtake Mode range by lap 51. Antonelli, on fresher tyres, was catching Norris at roughly the same rate Norris was catching Hamilton; he eventually passed both, while Norris got past Hamilton.

Piastri’s race was interrupted by a slow puncture on the front-right, which McLaren says it noticed on lap 40. He stopped a lap later for softs and returned without losing a place. With 20 laps remaining, he was 42 seconds behind Hamilton but lapping almost two seconds per lap faster. As Hamilton, Norris and Antonelli fought, the gap to Hamilton fell by 15 seconds in three laps. Norris asked whether to drop back to help Piastri, but McLaren told him to stay with Antonelli, who already had three strikes and could still face a penalty. The team believed Piastri had it covered; he passed Hamilton for fifth two laps from the end.