I am working my butt off – Lando Norris looking to reel in Max Verstappen

Lando Norris vowed to ‘work his butt off’ to take Max Verstappen to the championship wire – despite Christian Horner labelling the British driver a “lucky b*****d” after his win in Singapore.

Norris survived two scrapes with the wall in Sunday’s hot and humid 62-lap race before holding his nerve to strike another dent into his rival’s title lead.

Norris’ win – the most emphatic of his career so far – means he trails Verstappen by 52 points with 180 still to play for over the remaining six rounds.

Norris, in his superior McLaren machine, has taken 26 points out of Verstappen in the last four races.

After the chequered flag fell, Horner was quick to tell Verstappen that Norris had enjoyed two fortunate escapes en route to victory.

Explaining the radio message, Horner said with a smile: “It was to show that he (Norris) was a lucky b******. Hitting the wall once is usually a wake-up call and to hit it twice, somebody is smiling on you.”

Much has been made of Norris’ starts this year. Prior to Sunday’s evening fixture, he had failed to end the opening lap in the lead on any of the five previous occasions he has started from pole.

The unwanted statistic would have played on Norris’ mind, but he executed a near-perfect getaway here to keep Verstappen at bay on the short stampede to the opening chicane.

However, after navigating his way successfully through the first lap, and then building a lead of more than 20 seconds, Norris’ first heart-in-mouth moment arrived when he was in complete control.

On lap 29, Norris carried too much speed into Turn 14, and in a puff of white tyre smoke, he seemed destined for the wall. But the Bristolian avoided disaster when he managed to get his car round the bend, albeit bumping his front wing in the process. He came straight on the radio to report damage.

“We see a small issue with the front wing, but nothing serious,” were the reassuring words of his race engineer Will Joseph.

Crisis averted, for now.

Norris continued to extend his advantage. Yet with 17 laps remaining he grazed the wall. Again, he escaped without damage, but the anxiety on the McLaren pit-wall was evident.

“OK, so full concentration now,” said Joseph. “Take a drink.”

Norris’ lead stood at half-a-minute, and a nervous Joseph was back on the intercom.

“Just chill out and bring this car home,” he said.

To Norris’ credit, he did just that to claim his third win of the year, taking the flag 20.9 sec clear of Verstappen, and keeping his championship dream alive.

However, Norris was denied a bonus point for the fastest lap by former Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo in what could be the Australian’s final act in Formula One.

Ricciardo is expected to be replaced by Liam Lawson at RB – Red Bull’s ‘junior’ team – before the next round in Austin, Texas on October 20.

Asked if he now expects the title race to go to the wire, Norris said: “I am working my butt off to try and make sure it happens, but he (Verstappen) is doing the same to make sure it doesn’t.

“There will be plenty of competition until the end of the year. All I can do is score as many points as possible.

“There are still a lot of points to catch up and that will not be easy to do. Max and Red Bull are one of the most dominant pairings ever seen in Formula One. And that hasn’t changed.

“It is the same team and same driver combination so I have some tough competition. Our car is quicker than theirs, and that is down to the team being smart. But that is the game.”

Oscar Piastri completed the podium positions for McLaren, one place ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell. Charles Leclerc took fifth in his Ferrari, with Lewis Hamilton sixth.