Nico Rosberg has questioned the “baffling” on-track incidents that almost cost Lando Norris an easy victory at the Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix.
Norris stormed to a dominant victory in Singapore, leading every lap from pole position, pulling out a 22-second gap by the chequered flag.
Norris admitted to pushing flat out until the end of the race to secure a potential free pit stop, but this almost had dire consequences for the nearest challenger to Max Verstappen.
Cameras cut to the McLaren running wide several times during the race, including the same corner that eliminated George Russell on the last lap in 2023.
Rosberg expressed his concerns over the misdemeanours on the Sky Sports F1 podcast, questioning why Norris needed to push to the limit in a dominant car.
“For me, it kind of baffled me a little bit what was going on there,” Rosberg said.
Because he hit the wall twice and both were like really severe, almost race-ending moments where he was quite lucky not to DNF.
“Once, he went miles off the track in a hairpin out-braking [himself] – but really not a small out-braking, like a massive out-braking – and the other time he hit the same wall that George Russell hit last year, where he went crashing out on the last lap of the race last year.
“And what you maybe don’t remember, is he went off the track again when he was passing a backmarker, which was a Williams, he went off the track again.
“So there’s three moments here, and that’s so strange. Like, I can’t remember myself, or a Max Verstappen or whatever, or Lewis [Hamilton], when leading so comfortably with like 30 seconds [advantage] making three major mistakes like that. That was a bit strange.
“I mean, I know Singapore is so hard [for] concentration. Physically, it’s so so tough, but I don’t know what it’s down to.
“But we know that from Lando, that he tends to make those little errors all the time, everywhere.
“We’ve seen that from him, and he needs to iron that out if he wants to fight for the championship this year.”
Norris’ third win this season saw him reduce Verstappen’s championship lead to 52 points with six rounds remaining, starting with the United States Grand Prix.
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