Rosberg ‘baffled’ by Norris F1 mistakes

Nico Rosberg has conceded to being “baffled” by Lando Norris' mistakes during the Singapore Grand Prix.

Norris took a third career victory last weekend around the Marina Bay Street Circuit as he further narrowed the margin to Max Verstappen in the drivers' championship.

The McLaren driver dominated the event and won by almost 21 seconds over Verstappen, however, he had a few close calls along the way.

“It was very strange, the mistakes that he was doing in the race,” Rosberg told the Sky F1 podcast.

“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.”

After tapping the wall twice, Norris also ran wide into Turn 14 midway through the race and brushed his front wing against the barrier. Although he escaped major damage, the incident very nearly derailed his race.

"He went miles off the track in a hairpin, out-braking - but not a small out-braking, a massive out-braking,” Rosberg added.

"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.

"And what you maybe don't remember is he went off the track again when he was passing a back-marker, which was a Williams.

"So, there's three moments here. And that's so strange.”

Norris needs to 'iron out' mistakes

Norris now sits just 52 points behind Verstappen in the drivers' standings with just six grands prix remaining, however, more points will be on offer as half of the events are sprint weekends.

Rosberg highlighted that Norris will need to iron out his Singapore mistakes if he wishes to fight for the title.

"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,” he said. “That was a bit strange.

"I know Singapore is so hard, concentration, physically, it's so, so tough, but I don't know what it's down to that there's so many little [mistakes].

"But we know that Lando 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."