Here's the thing, Lando Norris is simply not happy with a P4 finish. After 62 brutal laps on the streets of Marina Bay, the McLaren driver and his team missed out on the podium entirely, crossing the line a distant 40 seconds behind race winner Max Verstappen.
Starting fifth on the grid, the Briton held his ground through the opening phase of the race while tucked in close behind the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli and the Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton. A mid-race pit stop for fresh tyres changed the complexion of his afternoon, allowing him to leapfrog Antonelli and immediately apply pressure on Hamilton, who was struggling on worn soft tyres.
We couldn't go with Max and Charles [Leclerc], I think Kimi was a little bit quicker than us as well. There wasn't really too much we could do other than where we ended up.
Drama struck when an attempted overtake on Hamilton at Turn 1 failed. Norris lost his momentum, went off track, and watched as Antonelli slipped right past him before the McLaren driver eventually managed to get the better of Hamilton to secure fourth.
Reflecting on the race, Norris admitted he can look at the result in two ways. "One, it's not a bad result for us. I think P4 is as good as we were going to get," he said. But he was brutally honest about his own execution: "I could have done a better job to fight more for the P3, done a better job fighting against Lewis and positioning my car a bit better and not going off and allowing Kimi to come through. Otherwise, a P4 is the best we could achieve today. I'm happy we managed to do that but we want more than what we had today.
When the dust settled, Norris was left 16 seconds adrift of the final step of the podium and a massive 40s back from Verstappen. The sparkling summer form that brought Norris two victories has vanished, and the reality of the championship fight has shifted. Red Bull are the team to beat right now, having clearly improved their machine over the last few weeks, while McLaren has slipped backward.
"We're the fourth fastest team, which means that if we finished P4 today we still did a good job and overachieved let's say in terms of car result," Norris explained. "I'm not happy with a P4, I want a podium and we want to fight for wins. We need to keep trying to improve and bringing upgrades to make the car better."
Meanwhile, team mate Oscar Piastri managed to salvage a P5 finish at the chequered flag. The Australian's race included an unscheduled mid-race stop due to a slow puncture, but he fought back to overtake Hamilton on the penultimate lap. "It felt pretty reasonable I would say. I think we just didn't quite have enough pace," Piastri said, summing up the team's struggles. "We couldn't go with Max and Charles [Leclerc], I think Kimi was a little bit quicker than us as well. There wasn't really too much we could do other than where we ended up."
