Lando Norris says his focus in the final laps of the Singapore Grand Prix was on protecting his runner-up spot behind Carlos Sainz as attacking the Ferrari charger would have made him vulnerable to his Mercedes pursuers.
As the race entered its final stage, Norris ran consistently about 1.5s behind Sainz. But once the Mercedes pair of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton – running on fresher and faster medium tyres – began to reel in the McLaren driver, smart tactics came into play.
Sainz opted to fall back slightly to tighten the gap with Norris to under a second to allow the Briton to benefit from DRS, which in turn would help him keep the Mercedes at bay
The ploy worked like a charm as Norris took the bait and remained just out of reach of Russell. However, it also put Sainz dangerously at risk of falling into the clutches of the McLaren.
But Norris later explained why attacking the Spaniard wasn't his main focus.
"It was protecting P2," he said. "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 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."
McLaren team boss Andrea Stella admitted after the race that Mercedes' decision to pit under the VSC caused by Esteban Ocon's stranded Alpine twenty laps from the end had sowed doubts in his mind about Norris' ability to protect his podium finish.
"When I saw them going onto sets of brand new mediums, I thought they're going to pass us," explained Stella.
"The new medium was the correct tyre for that situation, considering the stint length.
"We considered actually pitting, but we would be on a used soft [as Norris had no other tyres available] and we were nervous of 16-17 laps flat out on a used soft.
"So we decided to stay out. We would have pitted in case of a safety car, but not in case of the virtual safety car."
Stella reckoned that Russell's struggle to overhaul Norris had perhaps been caused by excessive brake or tyre temperatures due to running in the train of cars.
But the Italian admitted that Norris would have likely lost out to his Mercedes rivals without Sainz's masterful 'Carlando' tactics.
"I think soon they lost a little bit of this momentum, and getting traction with the softer tyres," he added. "Then the last three laps, I said: 'Maybe we can do it.'
"But I don't think we would have done it without the collaboration with Carlos. Let's call it like this, because Carlos, in his own interest, he wanted to have Lando within the DRS.
"So the time when Lando lost it in trying to defend, I think Carlos actively kind of waited for Lando to get within DRS. So it was a bit of teamwork between two previous team-mates for a great result for both teams."
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