Norris reveals he pushed a bit too hard in Singapore

F1 Grand Prix, GP Singapore, Marina Bay Street Circuit

Having secured his third F1 victory, McLaren driver Lando Norris has acknowledged that he pushed a little bit too much at certain stages of the Singapore race.

McLaren driver Lando Norris has been in dominant form all through the weekend in Singapore, with only Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc having been able to challenge him. However, with the Ferrari driver having encountered issues with tyre temperatures in qualifying, Norris was left alone at the front of the field.

The British driver, who took his maiden win at this year’s Miami Grand Prix, did not hesitate to secure his third F1 victory on Sunday, claiming the McLaren’s fifth triumph in 2024.

Asked how it felt to secure his third victory in utterly dominant fashion, Norris said that it was not too dissimilar to his previous two wins.

“Just a win is a win. So yeah, maybe it puts a slightly bigger smile on your face but the main job is just getting the win. So, it's satisfying no matter what. Of course the bigger the gap you can have the happier you're going to be but I'm just happy we finished on top and we got maximum points and got another win.

“It's always going to be a tough race here, but I felt good all weekend, so all I had to do was go out there and perform like I've been performing and all things were going to go well.

The Bristol-born driver has revealed that he was intent on creating a gap between himself and his closest challenger Max Verstappen which would have allowed a ”free pit stop”.

“I mean, very, I was flat out. I was probably pushing a bit too hard. Yeah, it was definitely not like I was cruising. I was pushing to open up a gap, and at one point I wanted to try and open up a pit window to give myself an opportunity to maybe box at the end of the race for quickest lap if I needed to try and achieve that.

“Daniel stole that away from me at the end of the race. So, yeah, a tough one, but it wasn't easy. The car was not easy to drive, especially on the Hard tyres. I struggled a lot more than what I did on the Medium. And especially just with the traffic and things, it was a bit harder to manage the second half of the stint compared to the first, but I was pushing.

“Let me tell you, I was definitely pushing. Probably too much, hence the mistakes I was making, or the two mistakes I made with the wall, but otherwise things were going well.”

Pushed on to reveal whether the glances with the wall affected the performance of his MCL38, Norris indicated that he did not feel anything after his flirts with the barriers.

“I don't think so. I mean, the team said that there was something with the front wing, maybe being a little bit off. I hit the front wing against the barrier, so it might have tweaked it a touch, but I don't think probably much to change it, but hard to know.

“On these cars, as soon as you tweak something a tiny bit, it can have quite a big impact, but nothing that I was probably feeling. But yes, as soon as I did that, and I think it was more… I mean, I was pushing, but also it felt was just as I was catching up to the dirty air from the cars ahead, whether they were three, four seconds ahead, as soon as... It changes from the past, you know, 20 laps that I had.

“You have a little bit less grip, a little bit less downforce. Tyres are going away a little bit. It just caught me out. So it wasn't like a lack of concentration or anything. It was just a bit of a surprise to me. But, yeah, I think the car was all good and the car has been mega weekend. So a big thanks to the team.”

Asked to explain his car’s form at the Marina Bay Circuit, Norris has revealed that McLaren has not changed anything on the car since the Baku round.

“We've not changed anything on the car from here to last weekend or the weekend before. We've even had to make tweaks to some of our wings and things that people have complained about.

“But we've still had a great weekend and probably one of our most dominant weekends here. I don't think that's made the difference, honestly. It was just that the car's been mega for a good amount of time. I've not been able to come out on top for for quite a few of them when I felt like I had the pace and I had the ability to do.

“So some of that is down to being my own fault and not executing things well enough. So I've paid the price for not doing a good enough job at times. But when I lead after Turn 1 and things are a a bit more straightforward then we can have a day like today."