Oscar Piastri gifts F1 sprint win to McLaren teammate Lando Norris: ‘I’m not proud of this’

Oscar Piastri has proven himself to be the perfect team man, gifting his world championship-chasing colleague Lando Norris victory for a McLaren one-two in the Sao Paulo F1 Grand Prix sprint.

After starting on pole at Interlagos, Piastri was still in control at the head of the field in Saturday’s race with two laps to go and in sight of the second sprint victory of his flourishing career, but instead he gave the team orders to let Norris through and take the lead. crucial victory.

The move came, much to McLaren’s relief, just before a late safety car intervention, but the Australian driver still managed to hold off a final charge from Red Bull championship leader Max Verstappen and finished second behind the Briton .

Piastri’s chances of later capping a brilliant day by going for pole in the Championship Grand Prix were undermined when heavy rain wiped out proceedings and the teams had to regroup for qualifying on Sunday morning ahead of the afternoon race.

‘Oscar rode well and he deserved the win today. “I’m not proud of winning a sprint race or a race like this, so I thank Oscar and the team,” said Norris, praising the Australian for his “great job” in ensuring Verstappen finished third.

Later, Verstappen was given a five-second penalty for a safety car violation while chasing Piastri, dropping him to fourth and reducing the Dutchman’s championship lead to just 44 points.

Piastri was given the toast of the entire team for his selfless display after dominating the race, with engineer Tom Stallard praising him on the radio for being a ‘huge support to the team’.

Piastri emphasized that he was not fed up with not being able to celebrate another win in his impressive second F1 season and shrugged: “The team result was clearly what we wanted.

Piastri followed team orders to allow Norris to come through and take the crucial victory

“It’s not as fun as winning, but I know the position we’re in. We’ve been talking about this for months and this is the first time we’ve had to enforce it.

‘I would have preferred to win, but it’s a sprint race and I don’t have much to fight for in the drivers’ standings. We knew this could and probably would happen, and I’m okay with it.”

Piastri got off to a fine start in the 24-lap race, moving to the head of the grid to keep Norris in second place from the start, with Verstappen stuck under a break in the opening corner and clinging to fourth place behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. .

As the race progressed, with Piastri always in the lead, Norris sounded increasingly nervous about when the changeover would take place, badgering his race engineer Will Joseph as his teammate was urged to ‘give Lando DRS’ to help the Briton Leclerc and keep Verstappen in his place. bay.

Max Verstappen and Norris chatting after the Brit ate the Dutchman’s lead in the championship

With six laps to go, Verstappen passed Leclerc for third place, and with two laps to go, Piastri allowed Norris to pass in the run-up to the fourth corner, a move that put himself under pressure from the champion.

Still, it looked like a straightforward McLaren one-two punch, until the Virtual Safety Car was deployed after Nico Hulkenberg had parked his Haas.

The VSC period ended on the final lap when Verstappen then aimed a lunge at Piastri, after which the Melburnian held firm and the Dutchman was punished.

McLaren team boss Andrea Stella had admitted that it would have been better if Piastri and Norris had swapped sooner “but the situation never materialized because it happened in a safe situation.”