NIGHT RACE CRUCIAL TO TIGHT TITLE FIGHT

For the first time in years, F1 heads to S'pore with a genuine battle for the drivers' crown

- Deepanraj Ganesan

The bright lights of Marina Bay will illuminate not just the stunning Singapore skyline, but a thrilling title race when the 15th edition of the Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix flags off on Sept 22.

The spotlight this time is on the frantic chase for championship points - a hunt that motorheads here have not witnessed for some time.

Heading into the weekend, Red Bull's Max Verstappen leads the drivers' championship with 313 points, but McLaren's Lando Norris is hot on the Dutchman's heels, just 59 points behind. This is the narrowest gap between the top two spots since 2018, when Lewis Hamilton had a 30-point lead over Sebastian Vettel.

With Ferrari's Charles Leclerc also in the hunt - he is only 19 points adrift of Norris - the 4.94km Marina Bay Street Circuit is set to be a high-stakes battleground, where every twist and turn could determine who is crowned world champion at the end of the season.

In recent editions, the title race was not as intense. In 2023 and 2022, Verstappen started the Singapore GP with significant leads - 145 points over Sergio Perez in 2023 and 116 over Leclerc in 2022. The 2020 and 2021 races were cancelled due to Covid-19, while in 2019, Hamilton arrived with a 63-point advantage over teammate Valtteri Bottas.