A late McLaren swap between Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris granted the latter victory in Saturday’s Formula 1 Sprint at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
A retiring Haas late on triggered fears of a Safety Car, prompting McLaren to execute a driver swap on Lap 22 of 24 to grant Norris the win.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen crossed the line in third, but was demoted to fourth post-Sprint due to a Virtual Safety Car breach.
As a result, Norris reduced the gap in the Drivers’ standings to 44 points with 112 remaining.
It was an all-McLaren front row on Saturday, Piastri ahead of Norris with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Red Bull’s Verstappen on the second row.
The question lingering over the grid was whether Piastri would let Norris through amid his title bid.
“It would be nice to win, but it’s a one-point difference and it’s not the main race, so we’ll see,” polesitter Piastri told Sky Sports F1 on Friday, implying he was ready to bow to team orders.
Piastri leads at lights out
It was a strong start for Piastri, who swept across Norris to lead into Turn 1.
Verstappen challenged Leclerc but the Ferrari man held firm as the top five remained in formation on Lap 1.
Haas’ Ollie Bearman had a slow start but quickly recovered to 10th, albeit now behind team-mate Nico Hulkenberg, who lined up in 12th.
Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton also lost ground on Lap 1, dropping three places to 14th.
The McLarens were able to break a small gap to the following pack in the first few laps of 24, with Verstappen harrying Leclerc to no avail.
That buffer was slight at best, however, and four laps in, the top four of Piastri, Norris, Leclerc and Verstappen were covered by just over two seconds.
LAP 5, “Yeah I’m close,” came the call from Norris over team radio, hinting that a swap could occur with Piastri quite soon.
Two laps later, “I’m not sure what I’m doing here, I thought we talked about this.”
Moments after that call, Norris dropped out of Piastri’s DRS, and fell into the one-second window of Leclerc and Verstappen chasing from behind.
“Keep doing, what you’re doing,” came the call to Norris.
“Yeah, whatever,” was the response.
The top four had pulled clear of the rest of the field in a big way, with Carlos Sainz 3.7s adrift in fifth by Lap 9.
Meanwhile, Bearman had stolen the initiative over Hulkenberg to take ninth at Turn 1 with Perez splitting the Haas duo to take 10th not long after.
Two laps later Perez picked off Bearman, with his RB rival Liam Lawson next up the road in eighth, 2.2s ahead.
McLaren hold positions mid-Sprint
Up front, Norris still didn’t have Piastri’s DRS despite the Australian’s engineer instructing him to play the team game.
Was a message being sent by Piastri, or was he simply abandoning the team game?
The answer came on Lap 13, with Piastri giving up three-tenths to Norris to reduce the gap to half a second.
Behind them, Leclerc was still holding Verstappen at bay while further back, Perez drew right up to Liam Lawson by Lap 14.
The task that McLaren had to complete was building a gap big enough to perform the switch safely.
By Lap 15, that buffer behind Norris to Leclerc grew to 1.5s as a mistake at Turn 1 by Verstappen gave the Ferrari driver a bit of room.
“We’re happy to hold these positions to the last lap,” Norris was told by his race engineer.
But Verstappen finally got past Leclerc on Lap 18, using DRS down toward Turn 4 to take third.
The Dutchman set about chasing his title rival, making McLaren’s task just a little bit harder.
Back in the battle for the final point, Perez charged past Lawson at Turn 1 to poach eighth on Lap 20.
Not long after, Hulkenberg pulled off the circuit in Sector 2 with smoke coming from his Haas, triggering yellow flags, but no immediate Safety Car.
A late swap brings victory to Lando Norris’ door
McLaren responded quickly, swapping positions to let Norris lead through Turn 4 on Lap 22, with a Virtual Safety Car triggered not long after.
The race went back to green on the final lap and Piastri was almost caught napping by Verstappen at Turn 4.
Luckily for McLaren, Norris led a 1-2 across the line with Verstappen finishing third.
However, the Dutchman was found to be below the miminum VSC time, demoting him to fourth and promoting Leclerc to the podium.
A distant behind the top four and rounding out the top five at Interlagos was Sainz.
Mercedes’ George Russell finished in a no man’s land sixth ahead of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly in seventh.
Perez held onto the final Sprint point in eighth with Lawson and Williams’ Alex Albon rounding out the top-10.
READ MORE – F1 2024 Sao Paulo Grand Prix – Sprint Race Results
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