Norris explains motivation for 'pushing too hard' in Singapore GP

Lando Norris has revealed the reason behind pushing to the extent he did during the Singapore Grand Prix.

The 24-year-old, who admitted he was "pushing a bit too hard", explained it was an attempt to open out a pit-stop advantage over Max Verstappen, who was running in second place.

Whilst the gap did eventually reach close to 30 seconds, enough for the an extra stop, towards the end of the race at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, the McLaren driver let his advantage reduce, crossing the chequered flag just under 21 seconds clear of the Red Bull.

Norris held the bonus point for fastest lap in the closing stages, but RB's Daniel Ricciardo nicked it away from him on the last lap, something that has caused tension and battle lines to be redrawn between McLaren and Red Bull as the championship fights intensify.

When asked how hard he had to push to develop the advantage he did, Norris replied to media including RacingNews365: "Very," I was flat out. I was probably pushing a bit too hard.

"It was definitely not like I was cruising. I was pushing to open up a gap, and at one point I wanted to try and open up a pit window to give myself an opportunity to maybe box at the end of the race for quickest lap if I needed to try and achieve that - Daniel stole that away from me at the end of the race."

There were almost extreme consequences for the aggressive approach employed by Norris, who came close to putting his McLaren in the wall on two occasions en route to the third grand prix win of his career.

His margin of victory may have given the impression he triumphed at a relative canter. However, the Briton found his second stint, on the white-walled Pirellis, considerably more difficult than the opening phase of the race.

"A tough one, but it wasn't easy," Norris reflected. "The car was not easy to drive, especially on the hard tyres. I struggled a lot more than what I did on the Medium.

"And especially just with the traffic and things, it was a bit harder to manage the second half of the stint compared to the first, but I was pushing. Let me tell you, I was definitely pushing. 

"Probably too much, hence the mistakes I was making, or the two mistakes I made with the wall, but otherwise things were going well."