Piastri had enjoyed a slender advantage over Norris all weekend, but it was the Briton who got the better start from fifth. He was immediately past Andrea Kimi Antonelli off the line to put himself on the apex of turn 1 on Piastri\u2019s inside.<\/p>\n
From there Norris was able to pin Piastri onto the kerb at turn 2 and claim the inside for the left-handed turn 3.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1759535888_361_poster-fallback.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n
But his angle to the turn was too shallow, and he hit the brakes late. He sailed past the apex and nudged Max Verstappen ahead of them, and as he did so he suffered a snap of oversteer that had him thump Piastri towards the wall.<\/p>\n
The title leader came perilously close to disaster but was able to continue in fourth.<\/p>\n
The core tenet of McLaren\u2019s racing rules \u2014 of any team\u2019s rules of engagement \u2014 had been breached. Contact between sister cars had been made.<\/p>\n
It had a material impact on the outcome of the race \u2014 on a night when overtaking proved painfully difficult at the front, Piastri was condemned to fourth behind Norris, Verstappen and winner George Russell.<\/p>\n
Piastri, whose, title lead has been reduced for the third race in succession, wasn\u2019t happy \u2014 to say the least.<\/p>\n
Oscar GRILLS McLaren after Norris clash | 00:58<\/p>\n
WHAT DID PIASTRI SAY?<\/p>\n
\u201cAre we cool with Lando just barging me out of the way or what\u2019s the go there?\u201d Piastri said immediately.<\/p>\n
His view of the incident perhaps lacked vision of Norris\u2019s collision with Verstappen, but when informed the team wouldn\u2019t take any action because of that initial contact, he had an argument ready to go for that too.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not fair. I\u2019m sorry, that\u2019s not fair,\u201d he said. \u201cIf he has to avoid another car by crashing into his teammate, then that\u2019s a pretty sh*t job of avoiding.\u201d<\/p>\n
Piastri\u2019s logic is understandable but perhaps even clearer if you were to imagine the same incident had bigger consequences.<\/p>\n
Imagine, for example, if the entire situation had taken place 30 centimetres closer to the barrier, from where Norris\u2019s thump puts Piastri in the barrier and out of the race.<\/p>\n
The cardinal rule is no teammate contact precisely for this reason \u2014 that even minor contact in an open-wheeler can be disastrous.<\/p>\n
Piastri had seen his race flash before his eyes because of his teammate\u2019s action \u2014 and had seen his teammate get away with it.<\/p>\n
Despite his in-car concern, Piastri was predictably more measured in his post-race media debrief \u2014 understandable particularly in the context that this was his team\u2019s title-winning night.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the main thing is the two cars coming together is never what we want,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ll go and have a look at it in more detail and come to my conclusion then.\u201d<\/p>\n
When he does look back at the incident, he might have cause to feel aggrieved to learn that Norris wasn\u2019t so much as cautioned over radio for putting his teammate at risk of crashing out of the race.<\/p>\n
That stands in stark contrast with other close battles this year during which Piastri has been warned moves he\u2019s made have come close to breaching the agreed racing rules \u2014 for example, in Austria and Hungary, where he was told his big lunges were too risky.<\/p>\n
Of course there is a key difference between Singapore and those races. Previously Piastri was the chasing driver and in a position to try on another move. In Singapore Norris was already ahead and wouldn\u2019t need to launch another overtake.<\/p>\n
He was asked whether he felt the team was biased towards Norris.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d was his clear answer.<\/p>\n
He was asked whether he felt the team had been fair to him and Norris on balance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think ultimately yes,\u201d he insisted. \u201cThere\u2019s obviously been some difficult situations for the whole team.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve obviously spoken about a number of things. Could things have been better at certain points? Yes. But ultimately it\u2019s a learning process with the whole team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very, very happy that the intentions are very well meaning, so I have absolutely no concerns about that.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere have been some tough situations this year, and this is another one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bezzecchi storms back to win thriller! | 01:24<\/p>\n
WHAT DID NORRIS SAY?<\/p>\n
Norris unsurprisingly was of a different opinion.<\/p>\n
The Briton\u2019s perspective is that this was a straightforward and minor first-lap incident unworthy of attention.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just had a big gap on the inside of Oscar,\u201d he explained. \u201cIt was just very close. It was still slippery because it was still damp in places and drying out.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I just clipped the back of Max\u2019s car, and that\u2019s just given me a little correction [into Piastri], but then that was it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe aggression there and the forward thinking paid off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked if he\u2019d been too aggressive with his teammate, his view was clear.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hit Max, so I wasn\u2019t aggressive on my teammate,\u201d he justified.<\/p>\n
He was similarly forthright when asked whether putting Piastri in the position he did transgressed McLaren\u2019s racing rules.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think there was anything wrong that I did,\u201d he argued. \u201cOf course I misjudged a little bit how close I was to Max, but that\u2019s racing. Nothing happened otherwise.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure I still would have just ended up ahead of Oscar anyway because I was on the inside and he would have had the dirty side of the track on the outside.<\/p>\n
\u201cI need to go review it of course. I need to look at things and see if there was something I could have done better.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last thing I want is to make contact with my teammate, especially because all I get is then questions from [the media].<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll see what I can do better next time, but the FIA obviously thought it was fine and the team did too, so that\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The stewards noted the incident almost immediately but took just a minute to dismiss it as not warranting further investigation.<\/p>\n
The team appeared to follow the stewards\u2019 lead in discussing the incident but deciding against intervening.<\/p>\n
Certainly the regulations are on Norris\u2019s side. While you can ask whether the incident met the internal team rules based on what could have happened, the regulations only deal with what actually happened, and minor contact that did no lasting damage to other cars on the first lap isn\u2019t worthy of a penalty.<\/p>\n
You can sympathise with Norris too in the context of his season.<\/p>\n
The championship challenger has been criticised repeatedly for lacking the killer instinct characteristic of F1\u2019s greats \u2014 of lacking aggression and incisiveness in battle.<\/p>\n
Well, here he was taking his chances and gaining places, doing exactly what he\u2019s been told he has to do if he\u2019s to overhaul Piastri for the title.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnyone on the grid would have done exactly the same thing as what I did,\u201d he said. \u201cI think if you fault me for just going up the inside and putting my car on the inside of a big gap, then I think you shouldn\u2019t be in Formula 1.\u201d<\/p>\n
‘Car didn’t have enough in it for pole’ | 01:03<\/p>\n
WHAT DID THE TEAM SAY?<\/p>\n
Team boss Andrea Stella, originally an engineer by trade, has set an analytical, cool-headed tone during his time at the top of McLaren.<\/p>\n
His approach has been remarkably effective at keeping a lid on the championship fight this year. Tensions have been kept so under control that it\u2019s sometimes seemed as though there was no title battle happening at all this season.<\/p>\n
Unsurprisingly he took no sides after the race, but his post-race comments were notable for the line he attempted to cautiously toe.<\/p>\n
On the one hand, he defended the call made by the pit wall not to intervene on the grounds that Norris hadn\u2019t been directly racing Piastri at the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn terms of having a contact between our two drivers, this contact is in reality a consequence of another racing situation that happened between Lando and Verstappen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cDefinitely, because there was a contact itself, this will lead to a review and some good conversations, but in the moment, we thought that this contact was more a result of another racing situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
But on the other hand, he cautioned that it wouldn\u2019t be until the team debriefed the incident that he could be sure that the call was right. He also said it wasn\u2019t enough to simply use what might popularly be called the Senna defence \u2014 that a racing driver is required to go for a gap that exists.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn terms of going for the gap, I think it\u2019s just a bit too much of a coarse approach,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need to retain a higher degree of sophistication and detail, because there are so many elements that you need to take into account, and we need to make sure that we don\u2019t become too quick in drawing conclusions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to be accurate, because there\u2019s a lot at stake, and the lot at stake is not only the championship points but also the trust of our drivers in the way we operate as a team. This is, if anything, even more foundational than the points themselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will apply all the accuracy that is required in this case and all the conversations that are needed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will have the good conversations like we had, for instance, after Canada. This review gave us the opportunity to come back, like we said at the time, even more united and stronger as a team.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will see if there\u2019s any learning and anything that we need to fine-tune in terms of our approach, but I think this will just lead to some good conversations.\u201d<\/p>\n
FAIR\u2019S FAIR<\/p>\n
It\u2019s important to keep this incident in context.<\/p>\n
Norris did not break any racing regulation. He did not race unfairly. He did not even take, in a general sense, too much risk. Contact was minor between him and both Verstappen and Piastri.<\/p>\n
The complicating factor is the way he raced his teammate, who is also his title rival.<\/p>\n
McLaren has gone out of its way to try to create as level a playing field as possible. Stella has talked about creating a set of principles by which the team could keep the fight fair.<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s meant several times this year the team has found itself intervening in the on-track action in a bid to maintain that sense of fairness.<\/p>\n
It started at the first round of the season, when it prevented Piastri from overtaking Norris in Melbourne because there were backmarkers ahead who had to be lapped and because there was rain approaching on the radar \u2014 remarkable conservatism.<\/p>\n
The previous flashpoint was in Monza, where Piastri was told to hand second place to Norris after the Briton had suffered a slow pit stop.<\/p>\n
The team ably justified both of these \u2014 and other \u2014 decisions through the year, but every time the pit wall has intervened, a new precedent has been added to the so-called papaya rules.<\/p>\n
Every precedent is a new complication when the drivers find themselves sharing the track.<\/p>\n
For example, at last year\u2019s Italian Grand Prix Piastri was praised by the public for his audacious around-the-outside move on Norris for the lead. After the race, however, the team decided that he\u2019d been too aggressive despite not making contact.<\/p>\n
The Singapore situation is similar enough to ask why that precedent wasn\u2019t enforced \u2014 which might have seen the team tell Norris to hand the place back \u2014 but different enough to justify a different outcome.<\/p>\n
The application of these myriad rules have also created what, for lack of a more precise term, could be called the vibe.<\/p>\n
Several times this year Piastri has played the team game, either by not attempting to pass Norris or by handing a place back or sticking with a slower strategy.<\/p>\n
It is purely circumstantial that Piastri has been in a position to have these calls requested of him.<\/p>\n
Norris, on the other hand, has rarely been in a position to receive a team order. But for the purposes of an example, he took several laps and much pleading to let Piastri by at last year\u2019s Hungarian Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
One wonders whether the unfortunately lopsided count weighs on Piastri each time he abides by the team game.<\/p>\n
\u2018THIS IS HARD\u2019<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a situation not lost on Stella.<\/p>\n
The Italian boss recognises that the rules of engagement \u2014 conspicuously rarely referred to as papaya rules these days \u2014 can be uncomfortable, but his position is that allowing his drivers to race totally unfettered would be worse.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time we start our conversations with the drivers, we always remind ourselves, as a premise, that this is hard,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause this is the only matter in which, when you race together as a team, actually you can\u2019t have exactly the same interest for the two drivers, because they want to pursue their aspiration.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a foundational principle of the way we are racing at McLaren. We want to protect this \u2018let them race\u2019 concept. We know that as soon as you adopt this concept, you face difficulties, and we remind ourselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it\u2019s within this awareness \u2014 self-consciousness, in a way \u2014 that then we develop our conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n
He praised the attitude of his drivers \u2014 who undoubtedly have made McLaren\u2019s life easier this season when it so easily could have been nightmarish \u2014 for buying into the team\u2019s principles.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou need to be thorough and you need to have integrity in approaching that, and I\u2019m very proud of the way Lando and Oscar have been part of the process so far, because if we have been able to navigate through this difficult fact of going racing, it\u2019s because we have Lando and Oscar involved.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve been just great individuals, great contributors, and that\u2019s why it\u2019s been successful so far, and definitely we will work hard to make sure this is true for the remainder of the season and the years ahead in which we will keep on racing with Lando and Oscar.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"McLaren has won the constructors championship for the second successive year, but these aren\u2019t the victorious circumstances the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":192307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[121627,2095,12295,13273,121631,64,63,689,3159,2065,121623,31300,121630,94247,121626,121628,2055,121618,121620,11301,2057,817,121639,813,816,3875,939,121633,2328,121625,99277,4280,84673,825,647,932,121629,2041,2067,677,121640,102396,2114,121634,121624,121635,13777,121617,121638,121637,88562,102394,3595,85,121636,99282,31283,121632,121619,31298,121622,18251,22779,660,121621,2062],"class_list":["post-192306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-agreed-racing-rules","tag-america","tag-andrea-kimi-antonelli","tag-andrea-stella","tag-argument-ready","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-austria","tag-canada","tag-cardinal-rule","tag-championship-battle","tag-championship-challenger","tag-championship-points","tag-chasing-driver","tag-complicating-factor","tag-constructors-championship","tag-controversial-first-lap-move","tag-dominant-seasons","tag-eastern-europe","tag-europe","tag-f1","tag-first-lap-incident-unworthy","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-george-russell","tag-hungary","tag-italian-boss-recognises","tag-italy","tag-killer-instinct-characteristic","tag-learning-process","tag-marc-marquez","tag-material-impact","tag-max-verstappen","tag-melbourne","tag-monza","tag-myriad-rules","tag-north-america","tag-northern-america","tag-oceania","tag-on-track-action","tag-papaya-rules","tag-pit-wall","tag-post-race-comments","tag-post-race-media","tag-pretty-shit-job","tag-qualifying-session","tag-racing-rules","tag-racing-situation","tag-sister-cars","tag-slow-pit-stop","tag-so-called-papaya-rules","tag-southern-europe","tag-sports","tag-sprint-thriller","tag-team-game","tag-team-orders","tag-team-rules","tag-team-tell","tag-title-battle","tag-title-flashpoint","tag-title-leader","tag-title-rival","tag-victoria","tag-way-home","tag-western-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}