Lando Norris admitted he was “not proud” to win the Sprint race at Formula 1‘s Sao Paulo Grand Prix as McLaren’s team order prompted Oscar Piastri to cede his lead.
Piastri, who lined up in pole position, headed Norris in Brazil up until McLaren’s intervention with three laps to go saw him move aside on the approach towards Turn 4.
There had been vast attention going into the race on whether Piastri would give up a spot to Norris amid McLaren’s stance on prioritising the Briton’s points prospects.
Piastri had conceded that he would be prepared to relinquish a race win to his team-mate, who fronted a McLaren 1-2 to cut Max Verstappen’s advantage to 45 points.
Norris has revealed the topic was discussed in McLaren’s pre-race meeting, but doing a swap became complicated with Charles Leclerc and Verstappen close behind.
“We spoke through many different scenarios,” Norris told media including Motorsport Week post-race.
“It was tough to do that much earlier because the guys behind were pretty close.
“I think there was one lap, but it’s always it’s hard to suddenly kind of plan that and execute it. So I think we did the best job we could, we won, both cars up there.
“Of course, the Safety Car put [us] under a little bit of threat and we were lucky we didn’t have to do it after.
“But there’s always those risks in the beginning of the race, middle of the race, end of the race. It’s not a straightforward thing ever. We planned it and we executed it well.”
Norris praises McLaren teamwork
Norris expressed that he took less delight in picking up his maiden Sprint win in those circumstances as he set his sights on doing it on merit in the actual Grand Prix.
“We’ve helped each other over the last two years, for different things,” Norris expressed. “One of our strengths is we work very well as a team.
“I don’t think there’s probably any other team on the grid that work as well, so I’m proud about that all of that.
“We’re fighting for [the] Constructors and we’re fighting for the Drivers. We want to help the whole team achieve both of these goals.
“Obviously from a driver’s point of view, it puts us in a slightly different position.
“I’m not proud to win a race like I did today. I work hard to go and do a better job in quali later and put myself in a better position for the race.
“We want to avoid it as much as much as we can, but at the same time we sign up for this, we have to work together as a team.
“We get told what to do, we have a boss. We do the best we can to help each other out.”
READ MORE – McLaren team orders grant Lando Norris Brazil F1 Sprint victory
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