Piastri labels Norris overtake 'unjust' as George Russell claims victory
Friction between title rivals Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri reached a new high as their McLaren team clinched the constructors' championship at the Singapore Grand Prix.
Norris slid into Piastri while overtaking at the first corner at the start of the race, prompting the driver from Australia to claim it was "unjust" the team did not ask them to reverse positions.
Race Drama Mars Constructors' Triumph
The incident that is likely to cause problems at McLaren occurred when Norris dived down the inside of Piastri after making a good start from P5 on the grid.
Norris was caught out by Verstappen slowing more than he anticipated in the apex of Turn Three.
Norris touched the Red Bull, damaging the McLaren's nose section, and that bounced him sideways into Piastri, whose momentum was checked, enabling Norris to gain position into third place.
Driver Communications Show Increasing Friction
Piastri said over the team communication: "That wasn't very team-like, but sure."
Shortly afterwards, he continued: "Is it acceptable that Lando just pushing me out of the way?"
His engineer replied that the team were "looking at it", before coming back to tell Piastri that they would take "no action" in the race because "Norris needed to evade Verstappen" and that they would "analyze it afterwards".
Title Race Impact
- Piastri's points advantage over Norris was reduced to 22 points with half a dozen events remaining
- Verstappen has also closed in and is sixty-three points behind of the lead
- McLaren won their back-to-back team championship
Event Overview
George Russell controlled the race at the front on his way to a commanding victory, very much in the style of his victory in Canada back in June.
Verstappen opted to start the race on soft tyres rather than the mediums on most other cars in the top 10, but the strategy did not pay off and Russell easily held the first position at the start before building a comfortable lead.
"It was slippery, but it's racing. I took the inner line, had a minor adjustment but nothing more than that. It was hard but fair competition." - Lando Norris
Best of the Rest
Mercedes' rookie Kimi Antonelli secured P5, overtaking Ferrari's Charles Leclerc on the fifty-fourth lap as the Ferrari faded, and then defending against Lewis Hamilton in the closing laps.
Fernando Alonso drove an excellent race to take P8 as the best midfield runner.
The Spanish driver and Racing Bulls' Isack Hadjar fought a brief battle in the opening stages, Alonso passing Hadjar into the initial turn to take P8, before the Frenchman got him back later in the lap, only for Alonso to pass again on the third circuit.
