McLaren will want to ‘put a stop’ to Singapore Grand Prix scenario that ‘can’t happen again’

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It was a controversial end to the Singapore Grand Prix when Lando Norris was denied the bonus point for setting the fastest lap of the race.

Norris had produced his effort with 12 laps of the race to run, but on the penultimate lap, Visa CashApp RB decided to pit Daniel Ricciardo for a set of soft tyres for an attempt of their own.

The Australian had nothing to lose as he was running outside of the top ten and had lost positions to Kevin Magnussen and Esteban Ocon in previous laps, owning to poor tyre management.

On the final lap of the race, Ricciardo managed to successfully deny Norris of the extra points when he posted a 1:34.486s, which was four-tenths quicker than the Briton’s fastest attempt.

Suspicions were raised over whether the senior team told RB to pit Ricciardo in a bid to take away points from Red Bull’s title rivals McLaren, however it appears there will be talks to prevent it from happening in the future according to journalist Michael Schmidt on the Formel Schmidt podcast.

McLaren to ‘put a stop’ to fastest lap attempt

RB team principal Laurent Mekies denied that any conversation between the two Red Bull teams over a tactical fastest lap attempt took place, which was later backed up by those within the Red Bull team.

They initially wanted to try and attempt a fastest lap with Sergio Perez, but it was later aborted when Ricciardo had stopped.

Now McLaren is reportedly wanting to try and stop teams who outside of the top ten on track from potentially being able to ‘steal’ the fastest lap point from a driver inside the top ten.

“It can’t happen again because McLaren will definitely want to put a stop to it. It was well played, Ricciardo had nothing left to lose and still had fresh soft tyres so was able to do it quite comfortably at the end,” said Schmidt.

What Daniel Ricciardo’s fastest lap means for the championship

Ricciardo did not receive the extra point for the fastest lap because he was outside of the top ten, however, it did deny an important point for Norris in the Drivers’ Championship battle.

In what could go down to the wire between Norris and Verstappen due to the Red Bull driver’s current struggles leading to several points dropped, both teams are now trying to maximise their chances.

READ MORE: Visa Cash App RB driver Daniel Ricciardo’s life outside F1 from net worth to girlfriend

The latest development means Verstappen can still win the title if he finishes second in every race regardless of whether Norris wins the final six Grands Prix.

Ricciardo quipped after the Singapore GP that he was hopeful for a Christmas present from Verstappen if he wins the title by a point.