Lando Norris: It was a great day for McLaren

In Singapore, both McLaren drivers finished in the top five, and as neither Alpine F1 car made it to the finish line, the Woking team returned to 4th place in the Constructors’ Championship.

Lando Norris (4th): “It was not easy at all to achieve such a result. It was definitely the hardest race of my career, or one of the hardest. And maybe not because of the heat, but because this track requires extreme concentration from the first lap to the finish.

Especially if you were already tired at the beginning while waiting for the start that was delayed due to rain. In addition, the track was very wet. But for our team, the day was great. We were lucky to have a pit stop and switched to slicks when there was a safety car on track. At the time, few did it, but thanks to such tactics, we managed to get a little closer to the leaders.

But even in the first laps I showed good speed – I was surprised how quickly I managed to warm up the intermediate rubber. But it was difficult to overtake and we saw that in the example of Max Verstappen, his attempt to get ahead of me didn’t end well. So I didn’t want to take any unnecessary risks.”

Daniel Riccardo (5th): “I switched to soft tires on lap 36, but the choice of rubber was dictated by the fact that I could get extra chances at the restart. Of course we understood that when the race resumes we will be in a favorable position. The team wanted me to keep and defend my position.

At the restart, when everyone can have this or that difficulty, I felt that soft rubber gives good grip, but then I had to make it. At first I wasn’t sure if this was a good choice, but I was told that the race distance would be shortened slightly as two hours had passed from the start time, and this made it easier for us.

But I also started well and won three positions in the first round. However, the prospect was that I would finish tenth or just outside the top ten. We thought about switching to slicks first and then playing back a pretty big gap, but decided this wasn’t the right tactic.

We saw what happened when George Russell first switched to slicks: it took a long time to get back to normal speed. Then Gasly switched to slicks and didn’t drive too fast, so we decided to show maximum patience. When I saw Yuuki Tsunoda’s car crash into the guardrail, I realized this was a good time for us.

Of course we were lucky, but such tactics speak of the maturity of our approaches, because we ourselves contributed to the creation of these favorable conditions. Anyway, I finished fifth, my teammate finished 4th and the McLaren beat Alpine F1 in the Constructors’ Championship, which is a great result.”