Lando Norris breaks silence on Daniel Ricciardo stealing fastest lap at Singapore GP amidst fierce title fight

Lando Norris pulled off an extremely dominant victory at the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix.

Lando Norris breaks silence on Daniel Ricciardo stealing fastest lap at Singapore GP amidst fierce title fight

Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris (images via IMAGO)

The Singapore GP weekend was a dominant showing for McLaren and primarily Lando Norris. The Brit started on pole and led every lap till the chequered flag, and was on course to score a grand slam as he also had the fastest lap. However, Daniel Ricciardo was brought into the pits a few laps from the end and snatched the fastest lap away from Norris to aid Max Verstappen in his title bid to which, Norris has now reacted.

Daniel Ricciardo landed in Singapore knowing about the rumors surrounding his future. Despite this, he remained realistic and wanted a good race result. However, his expectations were thrashed due to a subpar qualifying, which led him to stay at the rear of the pack the whole race. On the other hand, to save his outing from being worthless, the Aussie and RB decided to pit him on a set of soft tires to claim the fastest lap away from Lando Norris and help Max Verstappen in the driver’s championship.

While many reckoned stealing the fastest lap away from Norris as his farewell gift, it also ruined the Brit’s chances of scoring a grand slam in his third F1 victory.

I’m happy for Daniel. It’s all good, though it would have been nice to grab that extra point myself.
Lando Norris said in the post-race conference

Despite this, the championship contender claimed that he was happy for his former teammate as he scored the fastest lap. However, he bemoaned about how another championship point would have aided him in reducing the gap to his championship rival.

Lando Norris’ Singapore GP weekend was not as easy as it seemed

The Englishman never looked back after starting from pole at the Marina Bay Street Circuit. Fans complimented how Norris drove a stellar race without many mistakes and finished with a 20-second-plus lead. In stark contrast, when the McLaren driver reflected on his race pace, he admitted that he did not have great pace during particular sections of the Grand Prix.

McLaren's Lando Norris (via imago)
Lando Norris (via imago)

Norris claimed the race to be a tough one as he was not at ease in the MCL38.

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.
Lando Norris said in the post-race conference as quoted by Pit Debrief

The three-time race winner stated that on his second stint, he suffered with the hard tires. This saw him reducing his lead by almost 10 seconds in the latter half of the hard tire stint as the traffic of the backmarkers had led to the problem.

Despite this, the Englishman gained seven points on his title rival. Moreover, he would like to keep up this momentum and keep outscoring Verstappen to win his maiden driver’s title and bring back the championship glory to Woking.