Tensions 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 in passing him at the first corner at the start of the race, leading the Australian to claim it was “not fair” the team did not ask them to reverse positions.
George Russell took his second victory of the season from Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who spent the closing laps holding off an attack from Norris.
Piastri closed in on the pair in the closing stages after being delayed by a slow pit stop but had to settle for fourth.
Piastri’s championship lead over Norris was cut to 22 points with six races to go. Verstappen has also closed in and is 63 adrift of the lead.
The key stories in a race that was designated Formula 1’s first ‘heat hazard’ grand prix,testing the drivers to the limit in temperatures of 30C and humidity of 72%, were the nternal argument at McLaren after contact between their drivers revived scrutiny over their approach to fairness in the title battle and McLaren’s constructors’ title a reward for their strong season.
McLaren row takes shine off constructors’ win
The incident that is bound to create problems at McLaren came as Norris dived down the inside of Piastri after making a good start from fifth on the grid.
Norris was caught out by Verstappen slowing more than he expected in the middle of Turn Three.
Norris touched the Red Bull, damaging the McLaren’s front wing endplate, and that bounced him side-on into Piastri, whose momentum was checked, allowing Norris to move ahead into third place.
McLaren’s internal rules dictate that the drivers are free to race but must not make contact with each other.
Piastri said over the radio: “That wasn’t very team-like, but sure.”
Shortly afterwards, he added: “Are we cool with Lando just barging me out of the way?”
His engineer Tom Stallard said the team were “looking at it”, before coming back to tell Piastri that they would take “no action in the race” because “Lando had to avoid Verstappen” and that they would “review it afterwards”.
Piastri replied that the decision was “not fair” and used an expletive in relation to Norris avoiding Verstappen “by crashing into his team-mate”.
Norris said: “It was slippery, but it’s racing. I put it on the inside, had a small correction but nothing more than that. It was good racing. I felt like I did everything I could today but I’m happy with that.”
The context for the incident is a series of situations in which McLaren’s manner of operating their internal policy has gone against Piastri.
In Hungary in August, Piastri was the lead McLaren driver but Norris was allowed to switch strategies in a move that eventually led to him winning the race.
In Italy in September, McLaren ordered Piastri to give second place back to Norris after a slow pit stop for the Briton, in combination with an unusual team decision to pit Piastri, the second of the two drivers, first led to Norris losing second place.
Piastri objected to that decision, saying he thought they had agreed that slow pit stops were to be considered part of racing, and therefore not something that should be corrected. But he acquiesced.
Internal discussions followed that incident, as they surely will this one.
The row took some of the shine off McLaren’s constructors’ triumph, their second in a row, and won with six races still remaining – the same point of the season as Red Bull sealed the title two years ago.
It is a reflection of a season of consistent excellence. The car was on average the class of the field, if less dominant than Red Bull’s in 2023, and they had both drivers delivering results at the front.
Russell controlled the race at the front on his way to a dominant win, very much in the manner of his victory in Canada back in June.
Verstappen chose to start the race on soft tyres rather than the mediums on most other cars in the top 10, but the choice did not pay off and Russell easily held the lead at the start before stretching out a comfortable lead.
Norris tracked Verstappen all race, but McLaren lost the ability to pass him at the pit-stop period by allowing Red Bull to pit first.
Norris then stayed out for a further seven laps but the tyre advantage was not enough for him to pass Verstappen.
He spent the final 18 laps on the Red Bull’s tail after Verstappen, who had been complaining that the car was very hard to drive, made an error at Turns 16 and 17, allowing Norris to close up.
Norris had the DRS overtaking aid for much of the final 10 laps of the race but was unable to pass.
Their battle gave Piastri an opportunity to close in again after a slow pit stop had dropped him to nine seconds behind Norris, after being four seconds back beforehand.
But although the Australian closed in, he was not quite able to join the battle before the race ran out of laps.
By BBC Sports
Email your news TIPS to Editor@Kahawatungu.com — this is our only official communication channel
