Oscar Piastri has proved himself the perfect team man, gifting his world championship-chasing colleague Lando Norris victory for a McLaren one-two in the Sao Paulo Grand Prix sprint race.
Having started on pole at Interlagos, Piastri was still in control at the head of the field in Saturday’s race with two laps left and in sight of the second sprint win of his flourishing career but instead followed team orders to let Norris come through and take the crucial victory.
The switch came, much to McLaren’s relief, just before a late safety car intervention, but the Australian driver still managed to hold off one final charge from Red Bull’s championship leader Max Verstappen to finish second behind the Briton.
“Oscar drove well and he deserved the win today. I’m not proud of winning a sprint race or any race like this, so I thank Oscar and the team,” said Norris, praising the Aussie for a “great job” in ensuring Verstappen ended up third.
Later, Verstappen was handed a five-second time penalty for a safety car infringement when he was pursuing Piastri, which dropped him back to fourth and meant the Dutchman’s championship lead was cut to just 44 points.
Indeed, Piastri was left the toast of the entire team for his selfless display after dominating the race, with engineer Tom Stallard praising him over the radio for being a “massive support to the team”.
Insisting he wasn’t fed up about being unable to celebrate another win in his impressive second F1 season, Piastri shrugged: “The team result was obviously what we wanted and what we spoke about before the race.
“It is not as much fun as winning but I know the position we are in. We have been talking about this for months and this is the first time we have had to enforce it.
“I would have preferred to have won but it is 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 am fine with it.”
Piastri got off to a fine start in the 24-lap race, shifting across at the head of the grid to keep Norris in second from the outset, with Verstappen locking up under breaking at the opening corner to cling on to fourth behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
As the race progressed with Piastri well in command, Norris sounded increasingly nervous about when the switch would happen as he talked to his race engineer Will Joseph while the Australian was urged to “give Lando DRS” in order to help the Briton keep Leclerc and Verstappen at bay.
With six laps left, Verstappen went past Leclerc for third, and with two laps to go, Piastri let Norris pass on the run down to the fourth corner, a move which put himself under pressure from the champion.
Still, it looked like a straightforward McLaren one-two until the Virtual Safety Car was deployed after Nico Hulkenberg parked up his Haas.
The VSC period ended on the final lap with Verstappen then aiming a lunge on Piastri on Turn 4, only for the Melburnian to hold firm.
Verstappen crossed the line in third but the Dutchman was facing an investigation for an infringement under the VSC that could cost him a five-second penalty and drop him to fourth.
McLaren team boss Andrea Stella had admitted it would have been better if Piastri and Norris had swapped earlier “but the situation never materialised for this being done in a safe situation.”
