Lando Norris revealed after finishing second at the Singapore Grand Prix last weekend that himself and Max Verstappen laughed about how bad Red Bull were at the Marina Bay Circuit, with the usually dominant side having not even progressed to Q3.
Red Bull endured a horrific weekend in Singapore, which saw both Verstappen and Sergio Perez eliminated in Q2.
It marked the first time since the 2018 Russian Grand Prix that Red Bull didn’t have a car in the final part of qualifying, highlighting their struggles across the weekend.
Verstappen at first was furious at how bad qualifying went; however, Norris revealed after the race on Sunday that himself and the reigning World Champion “laughed about it”.
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“I don’t know what they struggled with but when I watched his onboard yesterday I kind of laughed because I’ve never seen a car that bad before,” Norris said in the post-race drivers’ press conference.
“Max also laughed about it. We’ll see next weekend, I think they’ll be back at the top.”
Verstappen went onto recover to fifth on Sunday, in what was a respectable recovery given Red Bull’s poor performance in Singapore.
It was predicted by the Austrians ahead of the weekend that Singapore would be a tough venue for them, with Verstappen expecting the side to be “back on top” this weekend at the Japanese Grand Prix.
“I feel good about Suzuka. We learned from today and what we got wrong yesterday. I cannot go into details. Getting back on top is the target, yes,” Verstappen said, as reported by The Mirror.
Verstappen finishing fifth meant that his record-breaking 10-race winning streak finally came to an end, something many thought would never happen.
The Dutchman can now only win 19 races this season, should he be victorious at the remaining seven races.
He admitted that his streak ending was “absolutely fine”, given that he was very much aware that the run would conclude eventually.
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“I knew that this day would come, so for me it’s absolutely fine,” admitted Verstappen.
“To keep winning, everything needs to be perfect. I think everything went against us in the race with the safety car – it was possibly the worst-case scenario.
“I think we did the best we could. We had good pace and we were just unfortunate with the timing of the safety car. If it weren’t for that, I really think that we would have been in a good place to fight up front.”