“We can still fight pretty well” - Lando realistic after P4 in Singapore

Lando praised the team’s fight and remained realistic after he and Oscar both made late moves on Lewis Hamilton to take home fourth and fifth place respectively at the Singapore Grand Prix.

After a steady start from the third row, the McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 Team pair sat behind race leader Max Verstappen, both Ferraris, and Kimi Antonelli. After opting for a longer first tyre stint, we were eventually running in second and third before the first pit stops. Lando came in on Lap 33 and Oscar on the following lap to switch onto Medium tyres.

Franco Colapinto’s retirement momentarily raised the opportunity of a pit stop behind a Safety Car, but the Argentinian limped off the circuit just in time. Instead, both pit stops passed without major incident, as Lando emerged in fifth once again and Oscar, the last of the front six drivers to pit, in sixth after a brief issue with his front right tyre.

There were more issues further back in the field, as Lance Stroll’s clutch problem brought out the virtual safety car and Antonelli opted to pit, coming out between Lando and Oscar. And though the Italian was struggling with his brakes, a slow puncture on Oscar’s front right necessitated another pit stop just eight laps after his first – this time onto the Soft tyre.

Hamilton’s ailing tyres allowed both drivers to overtake him on the final few laps, though Antonelli snuck past Lando in the process of LN1’s first attempt to pass his compatriot to take the final spot on the podium.

Lando said: “We're still fighting for top four and almost for a podium, but we're still a bit too far off at the moment. So, we have to just keep trying to upgrade the car.

“I should have done a better job battling with Lewis. It was inevitable I’d pass him at some point. I braked a bit late, and I could have still put a good move in, and he would have let me past because he seemed to brake way too late. But it was just a bit unnecessary for me.”

With Verstappen clinching his second successive victory, Red Bull are just seven points behind us in the Constructors’ Championship in the race for third place. Despite their slower start to the season, new upgrades have brought them within touching distance.

“At the moment, we’re fourth fastest, but we’re still back at the front in that top group, which is closer than we were at the beginning of the year. We can still fight pretty well,” Lando said.

After a difficult Sprint in which Lando and Oscar collided, Sunday’s Grand Prix was a much smoother race. When Oscar was targeting Hamilton’s car in the final moments, Lando offered to hold the Ferrari driver up to aid his teammate in his pursuit of fifth.

Despite his extra pit stop, Oscar went on the charge in the latter stages of the race, eventually passing Hamilton on the penultimate lap to join his teammate in jumping one position beyond his starting grid spot.

He said: “It's fifth place, so there's a cap on the excitement, but it certainly made it more exciting at the end. I feel like it was a reasonable race, considering the puncture, although I don’t think that changed too much.

“We looked okay, I would say, but we just didn't have enough pace, really. I think Max and Charles were very quick, clearly, and we seemed a little step behind Kimi.”

Oscar and Lando can now look forward to a well-earned rest after an intense spell, before both drivers head to Austin in two weeks’ time for the United States Grand Prix, the first of four consecutive races in the Americas.