Nico Rosberg admitted Lando Norris left him baffled with 'strange' behaviour in Singapore
Lando Norris will be hoping to repeat his Singapore Grand Prix heroics from 2024 this weekend, but the McLaren driver was far from perfect on his way to victory last year
Nico Rosberg was left "baffled" by Lando Norris' mistakes during the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix, which nearly cost him his victory. Norris is set to try and regain some ground on Oscar Piastri in Sunday's race at Marina Bay Circuit.
A year ago he pipped Max Verstappen to the post, but his reckless blunders could have easily seen him fall behind. The McLaren driver scraped a barrier before making a pit stop, later colliding with a wall and veering wide while overtaking a backmarker.
Despite these errors, Norris managed to secure his third F1 win at the race, closing the gap to Verstappen in the world championship, which the Dutchman ultimately clinched for the fourth consecutive time. Despite his win, 2016 champion Rosberg was taken aback by the Brit's performance on the track.
"It was very strange, the mistakes that he was doing in the race," Rosberg told Sky Sports F1 at the time. "It kind of baffled me a little bit what was going on there because he hit the wall twice.
"Both were like really severe, almost race-ending moments where he was quite lucky not to be DNF. He went miles off the track in a hairpin, out-braking, but really not a small out-braking, like a massive out-braking.
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"I can't remember myself or a Max Verstappen or Lewis [Hamilton], when leading so comfortably with 30 seconds, making three major mistakes like that. That was a bit strange."
This season, Norris could be forced to play runner-up to McLaren team-mate Piastri, who has the edge in the Drivers' Championship despite a disappointing performance last time out.
Piastri tops the leaderboard and has claimed victory in seven races compared to Norris' five this season, leaving the latter with a 25-point gap to close in the remaining six races. Norris' unpredictable and costly errors have also plagued him this season.
He crashed out of the Canadian GP while attempting to overtake Piastri and later expressed regret for the incident. "I thought Oscar would move a bit more to the right, not to leave a gap obviously - I don't expect something to be easy from him, but I just misjudged it," Norris told the official F1 website.
"It was all my mistake, I take full blame, so I apologise to my whole team and to Oscar for attempting something like that. There's going for it like in the hairpin - a good, fair move - and there's being stupid like I was at the end."
Following a disappointing qualifying session in Azerbaijan, the Brit found himself with an uphill battle come race day. "A tricky race and a tricky weekend overall," Norris told the official McLaren F1 website.
"Today the pace was okay, but not enough to overtake. After not doing a good enough job yesterday, and a lack of real strategy options, there wasn't much more we could have done. Frustrating and not how I wanted the weekend to go, but we'll get our heads down now and look ahead to Singapore."
Despite Singapore's reputation as a challenging circuit, with its evening schedule and sweltering humidity, Norris remains optimistic about his prospects. "I'm looking forward to racing under the lights again in Singapore," he said.
"It was good to be back in Woking after Baku, resetting with the team and spending time in the sim. I’ve got good memories here – a podium and a win last year – so I’m ready to go for it again.”
Regarding the threat posed by Verstappen, who has claimed victory in the previous two rounds in Italy and Azerbaijan and currently trails Norris by 44 points in the championship standings, the 25-year-old acknowledged the Dutchman's potential for a stunning fightback to snatch the title from McLaren's clutches.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Norris said: "I mean, there's a chance, so... more than zero. I don't know."
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