Lando Norris says he ‘worked really well’ with former teammate Carlos Sainz in joint effort to keep Mercedes at bay
Lando Norris has given his take on how Carlos Sainz and his partnership was instrumental in keeping Mercedes behind them at the Singapore GP.
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The Singapore Grand Prix saw, what some are claiming, the most exciting moments of the current F1 2023 season. The Red Bulls, despite dominating for fourteen races this season, fell short on the way towards extending their winning streak. The Austrian team could only get one of their racers in the top 5, but Mercedes failed to take advantage of the circuit where Red Bull were weak. Coming up as the surprise act of the race at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, the Ferraris performed brilliantly as their recruit Carlos Sainz won the Singapore GP.
Earlier in the season, Sainz had said convincingly that there would be a circuit where Red Bull would be weak. Right from Friday’s practice session in Singapore, the Austrian team could hardly perform as well as they had done in the previous locations. Carlos Sainz simply wanted to take advantage of Red Bull’s weakness to push himself to bring Ferrari’s first race win of the season–and he excelled at that. But aiding Sainz on his journey to the top was none other than his former teammate Lando Norris.
Lando and Carlos’ friendship dates back to the initial days of the former’s F1 career when the two joined McLaren. While Sainz shifted to Ferrari when Sebastian Vettel left them, Lando Norris stayed loyal to the papaya squad. And at today’s Singapore GP, a brilliant ‘CarLando’ showdown amazed all their fans as the two finished in the P1 and P2 positions ahead of Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton. In the end, Lando Norris said, “I think we [Lando Norris’ team] worked really well with Carlos to stay ahead of them [Mercedes].”
Lando Norris gave the reason why he did not want to battle with Carlos Sainz for a race win
Lando Norris has shown some superior racing skills at various locations for McLaren this year. The youngster has already collected three podium wins counting Singapore GP, and looked well on his way towards a race win at the Marina Bay Street Circuit too. But the McLaren racer did not want to risk his second position for his ambition as he refused to attack Carlos Sainz for the leading spot in the grid. He said, “If I attacked Carlos, I wouldn’t have made the podium. Carlos played it very tactically, well done to him.”
With Lando attaining another podium win for McLaren, his teammate Oscar Piastri also impressed as much as he could. The racer gained ten grid places after starting from P17. Ending the race with some good points for the team in the seventh spot ahead of Red Bull’s Sergio Perez.
Next up, there is the Japanese Grand Prix in Suzuka. Last year, this is where Max Verstappen was declared the Formula 1 Championship winner of 2022, but this time, Red Bull would be fighting to reassert their dominance after a poor weekend in Singapore. But gaining on Red Bull, there is Ferrari who seem to have finally discovered the speed of the SF23 and Mercedes, who are performing well quite consistently too.
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Riddhi Mondal
(1821 Articles Published)