Norris 'not necessarily overpushing' in epic Singapore win

Lando Norris delivered his most dominant F1 victory to date with a mighty win over Red Bull's Max Verstappen in t e Singapore Grand Prix at Marina Bay Street Circuit on Sunday.

A text book start saw the McLaren fly into the lead at turn 1 while Verstappen had his hands full fending off the two Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.

By the time everything settled down, Norris was out of DRS activation range and pulling away from Verstappen by up to a second per lap, reminiscent of the sort of casually brutal domination Verstappen had shown his rivals for years.

At one point Norris had a lead ovf nearly 30 seconds, but he kept pushing in the hope of eking out enough of a margin to make a pit stop and take fresh tyres to allow him to set the fastest lap of the race and claim a bonus point.

In the end that proved too risky, and Norris twice made light contact with the wall that could have jeopardised his victory, before finally backing off and coasting to a landmark third Grand Prix victory this year.

• Read also: Sparkling floodlit walkover for Norris over Verstappen and Piastri

"It was an amazing race. A few too many close calls," Norris told the media in parc ferme after the chequered flag. "I had a couple of little moments in the middle, but it was well-controlled, I think.

"The car was mega, so I could push," he continued. "We were flying the whole race and at the end I could just chill. So it was nice. It's still tough - I'm a bit out of breath - but a very fun one."

Asked whether he had been a bit too reckless with the way he had continued pushing the limits long after the victory was well and truly in the bag, Norris said it wasn't a case of putting safety first.

"It's not that you're necessarily overpushing, sometimes it can be that you're just chilling too much," he explained. ""Maybe it was a bit of both. I don't know what it is.

"It's tricky. It was still tough out there, easy to lock the tyres like I did. So I still pushed, I didn't want to have a one-second lead, I wanted to have the biggest lead possible."

The hot and humid conditions certainly took their toll on all the drivers today, especially without a breather from a safety car all race - the first time that's happened in the event's history.

Norris said that the superheated conditions meant that the race had felt "similar to Qatar last year", adding: "I wasn't taking it easy. I could have taken it a lot more easy, so a little dizzy at the minute."

In the end, Norris wasn't able to set the fastest lap of the race. That went to Daniel Ricciardo after RB sent him out on fresh tyres at the end. However he doesn't get the bonus point as he finished outside the top ten.

As a result, Norris closes the championship gap to Verstappen by eight points, with the balance now standing at 331 points to 279 with six races remaining in the 2024 world championship.

That's entirely possible to make up, but it's going to take a lot of hard work and luck for Norris to pull it off. Come December, how much will he be getting not picking up that bonus point in Singapore?

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