McLaren and Lando Norris seek to pressure Red Bull in F1's Singapore Grand Prix

McLaren is ahead of Red Bull in the Formula 1 constructors' race. Now for Lando Norris to put pressure on Max Verstappen for the drivers' title.

Oscar Piastri's win last week at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix put McLaren top in the teams' standings — the key to F1's lavish prize money — but teammate Norris only took a small bite out of Verstappen's lead.

After starting 15th, Norris passed Verstappen late in the race to finish fourth, but the Dutch driver still leads by 59 points heading into the Singapore Grand Prix.

The talk in F1 this week has focused on McLaren's seemingly flexible rear wing, which might help at high speed. Piastri said Thursday it's legal and isn't a “magic bullet” for their recent success.

F1 looks wide open right now with Ferrari and Mercedes both fighting for wins. McLaren will still have to battle hard even if Red Bull isn't on the pace at a track where Verstappen has never won.

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc was fastest in the first practice on Friday, but only by .076 seconds from Norris. Carlos Sainz Jr. was third-fastest in the other Ferrari, and Verstappen fourth.

Piastri is the on-form driver in recent races, but in only his second season, he's heading into a late-season swing of tracks like Singapore that he doesn't know well. The Australian confirmed Thursday he'll still help out Norris' title challenge where he can.

"There’s still going to be some tough races in the latter part of the year on tracks that I’ve only been to once," Piastri said. “I feel like I’m improving a lot as I go through my career, but I’m certainly not the finished product yet.”

Singapore was the only track where Red Bull didn't win last year. The team couldn't find a competitive setup and Verstappen was far off the pace all weekend as Ferrari's Carlos Sainz Jr. took the victory.

Red Bull left Azerbaijan with some optimism that it's fixed at least some of the balance problems introduced by its attempts to upgrade the car this season. Verstappen — now without a win in seven races — wasn't happy with the car in Baku but emphasized it was a mistaken setup choice, not the underlying performance.

Singapore is slower than Baku and a trickier track for Red Bull, though.

“Our car generally is not very good on bumps and curbs and that’s of course what you have around here, so we need to try to stabilize that a bit,” Verstappen said Thursday in Singapore.

Street circuits tend to suit Verstappen's teammate Sergio Perez, who was fast in Baku in search of a podium finish since April. Colliding with Sainz meant all those efforts were for nothing, though.

After Singapore, Red Bull and its second team RB are expected to choose whether to keep Daniel Ricciardo at RB or recall Liam Lawson instead. Ricciardo said “decisions will be made” before the next race in Austin, Texas, on Oct. 20.

FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem's plans to crack down on drivers swearing has sparked the latest dispute between drivers and the governing body.

The way Ben Sulayem expressed that — drawing an unflattering comparison with “rap music” — drew criticism from seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton, F1's only Black driver. There was a “racial element” to Ben Sulayem's “stereotypical” language, he said.

While Hamilton said he thought there probably was too much swearing in F1, Verstappen argued TV should be more responsible about which radio excerpts get aired. “That will help a lot more than putting bans on drivers,” he said.

The heat and humidity of Singapore's street circuit make it one of the toughest races of the year for drivers. Even their water can get so hot it's hard to drink.

Mercedes driver George Russell said he started special training during the mid-season break a month ago, going for a run in three layers of clothes to simulate racing in fireproof overalls in the Singapore heat.

“We lose almost four kilograms (8 pounds, 13 ounces) of fluids in in an hour-and-a-half race, so it’s a pretty good weight loss program if that's what you're chasing," Russell said Thursday.

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

Mercedes driver George Russell of Britain steers his car during the first practice session of the Singapore Formula One Grand Prix at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, in Singapore, Friday, Sept. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen of the Netherlands steers his car during the first practice session of the Singapore Formula One Grand Prix at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, in Singapore, Friday, Sept. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

McLaren driver Lando Norris of Britain steers his car during the first practice session of the Singapore Formula One Grand Prix at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, in Singapore, Friday, Sept. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

McLaren driver Lando Norris of Britain arrives during the first practice session of the Singapore Formula One Grand Prix at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, in Singapore, Friday, Sept. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen of the Netherlands is pushed on the grid before the Formula One Grand Prix in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

McLaren driver Lando Norris of Britain makes a pit stop during the Formula One Grand Prix in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (Ali Haideric/Pool via AP)

BEIRUT (AP) — Chris Knayzeh was in a town overlooking Lebanon's capital when he heard the rumbling aftershock of the 2020 Beirut port blast. Hundreds of tons of haphazardly stored ammonium nitrates had exploded, killing more than 200 people and injuring thousands.

Already struggling with the country’s economic collapse, the sight of the gigantic mushroom cloud unleashed by the blast was the last straw. Like many other Lebanese, he quit his job and booked a one-way ticket out of Lebanon.

Knayzeh, now a lecturer at a university in France, was visiting Lebanon when news broke Tuesday of a deadly attack in which thousands of handheld pagers were blowing up in homes, shops, markets and streets across the country. Israel, local news reports said, was targeting the devices of the militant Hezbollah group. Stuck in Beirut traffic, Knayzeh started panicking that drivers around him could potentially be carrying devices that would explode.

Within minutes, hospitals were flooded with bloodied patients, bringing back painful reminders of the port blast four years ago that left enduring mental and psychological scars for those who lived through it.

A day later, a similar attack struck walkie-talkies. In total, the explosions killed at least 37 people and injured more than 3,000, many of them civilians. Israel is widely believed to be behind the blasts, although it has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility.

“The country's state is unreal,” Knayzeh told The Associated Press.

The port blast was one of the biggest nonnuclear explosions ever recorded, and it came on top of a historic economic meltdown, financial collapse and a feeling of helplessness after nationwide protests against corruption that failed to achieve their goals. It compounded years of crises that have upended the lives of people in this small country.

Four years after the port catastrophe, an investigation has run aground. The ravaged Mediterranean port remains untouched, its towering silos standing broken and shredded as a symbol of a country in ruins. Political divisions and paralysis have left the country without a president or functioning government for more than two years. Poverty is on the rise.

On top of that and in parallel with the war in Gaza, Lebanon has been on the brink of all-out war with Israel for the past year, with Israel and Hezbollah trading fire across the border and Israeli warplanes breaking the sound barrier over Beirut almost daily, terrifying people in their homes and offices.

“I can’t believe this is happening again. How many more disasters can we endure?” asked Jocelyn Hallak, a mother of three, two of whom now work abroad and the third headed out after graduation next year. “All this pain, when will it end?”

A full-blown war with Israel could be devastating for Lebanon. The country’s crisis-battered health care system had been preparing for the possibility of conflict with Israel even before hospitals became inundated with the wounded from the latest explosions. Most of the injuries received were in the face, eyes and limbs — many of them in critical condition and requiring extended hospital stays.

Still, Knayzeh, 27, can't stay away. He returns regularly to see his girlfriend and family. He flinches whenever he hears construction work and other sudden loud sounds. When in France, surrounded by normalcy, he agonizes over family at home while following the ongoing clashes from afar.

“It’s the attachment to our country I guess, or at the very least attachment to our loved ones who couldn’t leave with us,” he said.

This summer, tens of thousands of Lebanese expatriates came to visit family and friends despite the tensions. Their remittances and money they spend while there help keep the country afloat and in some cases are the main source of income for families. Many, however, cut their vacations short in chaotic airport scenes, fearing major escalation after the assassinations of Hezbollah and Hamas commanders in Beirut and Tehran last month, blamed on Israel.

Even in a country that has vaulted from one crisis to another for decades, the level of confusion, insecurity and anger is reaching new heights. Many thought the port blast was the most surreal and frightening thing they would ever experience — until thousands of pagers exploded in people’s hands and pockets across the country this week.

’’I saw horrific things that day,” said Mohammad al-Mousawi, who was running an errand in Beirut’s southern suburb, where Hezbollah has a strong presence, when the pagers began blowing up.

“Suddenly, we started seeing scooters whizzing by carrying defaced men, some without fingers, some with their guts spilling out. Then the ambulances started coming."

It reminded him of the 2020 port blast, he said. "The number of injuries and ambulances was unbelievable. “

“One more horror shaping our collective existence,” wrote Maha Yahya, the Beirut-based director of the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center.

“The shock, the disarray, the trauma is reminiscent of Beirut after the port explosion. Only this time it was not limited to a city but spread across the country,” she said in a social media post.

In the aftermath of the exploding pagers, fear and paranoia has taken hold. Parents kept their children away from schools and universities, fearing more exploding devices. Organizations including the Lebanese civil defense advised personnel to switch off their devices and remove all batteries until further notice. One woman said she disconnected her baby monitor and other household appliances.

Lebanon’s civil aviation authorities have banned the transporting of pagers and walkie-talkies on all airplanes departing from Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport “until further notice.” Some residents were sleeping with their phones in another room.

In the southern city of Tyre, ahead of a speech by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, city resident Hassan Hajo acknowledged feeling “a bit depressed” after the pager blasts, a major security breach for a secretive organization like Hezbollah. He was hoping to get a boost from Nasrallah’s speech. “We have been through worse before and we got through it,” he said.

In his speech, Nasrallah vowed to retaliate against Israel for the attacks on devices, while Israel and Hezbollah traded heavy fire across the border. Israel stepped up warnings of a potential larger military operation targeting the group.

Another resident, Marwan Mahfouz, said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been threatening Lebanon with war for the past year and he should just do it.

“If we are going to die, we’ll die. We are already dying. We are already dead,” he said.

Karam reported from London. Associated Press writer Hassan Ammar contributed to this report.

FILE - People remove debris from a house damaged by a massive explosion in the seaport of Beirut, on Aug. 7, 2020. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana, File)

FILE - A survivor is taken out of the rubble after a massive explosion in Beirut, on Aug. 5, 2020. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, File)

FILE - A police officer speaks with a protesting depositor as they stand in front of burning tires set on fire in front of a branch of Emirates Lebanese Bank in Dawra, a suburb north-east of Beirut, on Aug. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein, File)

FILE - A protester holds up a Lebanese national flag as he walks in front of burning tires that are blocking a main road, during a protest in downtown Beirut, on March 3, 2021. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, File)

Hezbollah members carry the coffins of two of their comrades who were killed on Wednesday when a handheld device exploded, during a funeral procession in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

FILE - An anti-government protester flashes the victory sign amid tear gas fired by riot police during a protest marking the first anniversary of the massive blast at Beirut's port, near Parliament Square, in Beirut, on Aug. 4, 2021. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein, File)

FILE - An Israeli reconnaissance drone flies over the funeral procession of four Hezbollah fighters who were killed Tuesday after their handheld devices exploded in the southern suburb of Beirut, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein, File)

A man mourns during the funeral procession of two Hezbollah members, killed on Wednesday when a handheld device exploded, in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

FILE - A drone picture shows the scene of an explosion that hit the seaport of Beirut, Lebanon, on Aug. 5, 2020. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla, File)

FILE - Police officers inspect a car inside of which a hand-held pager exploded, Beirut, on Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla, File)

FILE - A Civil Defense first-responder carries a wounded man whose handheld pager exploded at al-Zahraa hospital in Beirut, on Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla, File)

FILE - Hezbollah fighters carry one of the coffins of four fallen comrades who were killed Tuesday after their handheld pagers exploded, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein, File)

FILE - Smoke rises after a massive explosion at the port in Beirut, on Aug. 4, 2020. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, File)