Lando Norris revealed he came close to crashing out on the final lap of the Singapore Grand Prix when he struck the same wall as George Russell.
Norris ran second behind leader Carlos Sainz Jnr in the final laps of the race as the two Mercedes of Russell and Lewis Hamilton closed on the pair of them on fresh tyres.Russell placed Norris under pressure in the closing laps until the Mercedes driver clipped the outside barrier under braking for turn 10, sending him into the wall and out of the race. However, Norris admitted he had also hit the same wall moments before Russell did the same.
“I hit the wall at the same lap – the last lap, the same place,” Norris said. “So I think he copied me and just did it even worse.
“I feel for him. He fought a tough race, he was the quickest today, I would say. It helped me a bit. The last couple of corners, I could chill just a little bit more.”
Norris spent most of the race part of the train at the front of the train made up of Sainz, Charles Leclerc, Russell and Hamilton. Taking second place amid such close competition was especially satisfying, Norris says.
“Everyone – Carlos, Charles, Lewis and George – we all pushed each other the whole way,” Norris said. “So it was stressful, but it paid off.”
The McLaren driver inherited second place when the Mercedes opted to pit both their drivers during a Virtual Safety Car period with under 20 laps remaining. Despite having much older hard tyres than the Mercedes, Norris was able to keep them at bay while running just behind Sainz in the lead as the Ferrari driver backed off to allow him to use his Drag Reduction System.
“Carlos was very generous trying to help me get DRS,” Norris said. “It helped my race and also helped his.
“We knew it was going to be tough as soon as the Mercedes boxed, especially with only a couple of cars for them to overtake. But we’re on the podium, P2, we had them off. We did everything we needed to do and more. So I’m super happy.”
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Jere (@jerejj)
17th September 2023, 16:25
I immediately noticed that in the live moment from the backward view.
His contact was, fortunately, with the front right rather than rear right.
Simon
17th September 2023, 18:14
https://tinyurl.com/assk7kyr
MacLeod (@macleod)
18th September 2023, 7:57
You mean Lando’s rear just clipped the barrier as i saw the cover came up but i think George followed Lando at the same path and went just 1 cm more to the right clipping his right front tyre.
BasCB (@bascb)
18th September 2023, 11:46
Yeah, it looked like exactly that @Macleod.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
17th September 2023, 16:36
Shame both the Sauber seats are taken next year because he has the perfect amount of killer instinct for them (zero)
MichaelN
17th September 2023, 22:38
Norris now has four 2nd places without a win – same as Stefan Johansson.
Nick Heidfeld infamously had eight 2nd places without winning.
Didn’t see the race live, so not sure if Norris could have made a move on Sainz at any point, but it shows a mature approach to not risk such a good result in their current situation.
melanos
18th September 2023, 0:34
Lando never made a move on Carlos, but of course he knew Carlos had a lot more pace in pocket
In the last few laps Carlos was even slowing down a little bit to give Lando DRS so he could keep the Mercs behind. A brilliant move that worked well, but somewhat risky, Lando might have been tempted to take advantage and go for the win.
Rarely have I seen such degree of cooperation between teammates. Funny thing is, they are not even teammates, and this strategy was never a planned thing.
BasCB (@bascb)
18th September 2023, 11:48
Good point about the teammates. I don’t think Sainz could have done this with his own teammate behind at that moment since Leclerc would have just thought about using it to win instead (which would have just meant a Mercedes 1-2 most likely), not to mention how good Norris seems to be at finding exactly the right dosing of his hybrid energy to keep ahead at the right moments, that paired with getting DRS from Sainz at the right parts of the track made it work.