The Australian driver labels Norris overtake 'not fair' as Russell wins the race
Tensions between championship competitors Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri escalated significantly as their racing outfit secured the constructors' championship at the Singapore Grand Prix.
Norris slid into Piastri while overtaking at the first corner at the commencement of the race, prompting the Australian to state it was "unjust" the team did not instruct them to swap places.
On-track Incident Overshadows Constructors' Triumph
The controversial moment that is likely to cause issues at McLaren came as Norris moved aggressively the inner line of Piastri after getting away well from P5 on the grid.
Norris was caught out by Verstappen decelerating more than he anticipated in the apex of Turn Three.
Norris made contact with the Red Bull, compromising the McLaren's nose section, and that bounced him sideways into Piastri, whose pace was checked, allowing Norris to move ahead into third place.
Driver Communications Show Increasing Friction
Piastri said over the radio: "That didn't feel like teamwork, but sure."
Moments later, he continued: "Is it acceptable that Lando just barging me out of the way?"
His engineer responded that the team were "reviewing the situation", before following up to tell Piastri that they would take "no action" in the race because "Lando had to avoid Verstappen" and that they would "analyze it afterwards".
Championship Implications
- Piastri's points advantage over Norris was reduced to twenty-two 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 constructors' title
Event Overview
George Russell controlled the race at the front on his way to a dominant win, very much in the style 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 leading group, but the choice did not pay off and Russell comfortably maintained the first position at the start before stretching out a significant advantage.
"The track conditions were challenging, but that's motorsport. I took the inner line, had a minor adjustment but nothing more than that. It was good racing." - Lando Norris
Best of the Rest
Mercedes' rookie Kimi Antonelli took fifth place, overtaking Ferrari's Charles Leclerc on lap 54 as the Ferrari faded, and then holding off Lewis Hamilton in the closing laps.
Fernando Alonso drove an excellent race to take P8 as the top performer outside the leading teams.
The Spaniard and Racing Bulls' Isack Hadjar fought a brief battle in the first three laps, Alonso overtaking Hadjar into the first corner to take P8, before the driver from France regained the position later in the lap, only for Alonso to pass again on the third circuit.