Lando Norris commended Carlos Sainz’s late-race strategy after finishing second in the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday.
Mercedes pitted George Russell and Lewis Hamilton for new tires afterEsteban Ocon had to retire on lap 43 due to a transmission issue, allowing them to catch Sainz and Norris who had remained on the track.
Using the DRS to their advantage, the former McLaren teammates teamed up to hold off both Mercedes that were closing in on them. Norris managed to stay onto second place, achieving his first podium finish since Hungary.
“It was protecting P2,” McLaren driver Lando Norris said when the media asked where his focus was in the final laps. “George struggled to overtake me when he had a five or six-tenths advantage.
“So the chances of me getting Carlos with maybe one-tenth advantage, there was no chance, so I think Carlos played it smart.
“There was no need for me to try and attack him.
“The more I attacked him, the more vulnerable I would have been from both the guys behind, and I wouldn’t be sitting here if I played it differently, so it was a stressful last few laps.
“The last lap, I hit the wall where George also hit the wall, but I hit it with the front, so I panicked a bit it damaged the steering in terms of it being just off-centre.
“But luckily, it wasn’t anything more than that.”
Although Norris and Sainz were able to team up in the closing laps to repel the Mercedes assault, the podium was ultimately decided by tyre management.
Russell was unable to overtake Norris despite having fresh tires, costing himself a chance at the win and a podium finish after crashing into the wall during the last lap.
“Nope. If it went to safety car, we would have boxed, but under VSC, no,” said Norris.
“I think on paper, if there was no traffic, the Mercedes’ have to overtake their strategy was way faster.
“You know, if we weren’t in a way, they would have been ten seconds ahead of us quite easily, but there’s always the task of overtaking, which in Singapore is one of the hardest tasks.
“Especially at the end with a couple of those attacks from George. I think he just put his tyres a little bit over the edge, and he didn’t attack me as much after that,
“We had a perfect pitstop to get out of Charles, a perfect strategy to get out of the Mercedes as well. So the team did an excellent job today.”
