Lando Norris has revealed he overruled his race engineer’s call in giving up the Sprint race win at the Formula 1 Qatar Grand Prix to McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri.
Norris headed proceedings throughout the 19-lap race, but he relinquished the lead to Piastri on the approach to the line as McLaren secured a maximum points haul.
The Briton preserved his pole position advantage at the start, while Piastri sneaked past George Russell’s Mercedes exiting Turn 1 to place the McLarens in formation.
Russell’s straight-line speed advantage saw Piastri start to come under intense pressure, prompting McLaren to instruct Norris to slow to grant DRS to his team-mate.
That meant that McLaren protected the 1-2 right until the end when Norris moved aside on the approach to the chequered flag to allow Piastri to inherit the Sprint win.
Norris admitted that returning a victory to his team-mate had been in his head since Piastri had done the same in Brazil when he was still in championship contention.
“I made my mind up in Brazil when it happened,” Norris told media including Motorsport Week. “So, yeah, it’s a Sprint.
“Yeah, I only care so much more about the Grand Prix, you know, as does everyone.
“So, yeah, after it happened in Brazil, I made my mind up that I needed to do something to give it back.”
Norris has disclosed that his race engineer Will Joseph was aware of his intentions, but he had advised the driver against the move due to Russell being close behind.
“It wasn’t something that was really discussed,” the Briton explained. “I didn’t have to do it if I didn’t want to.
“I told my engineer that I would do it. So, he was the main one that probably knew about it.
“I told him before the race if we have a bit of a gap on the first and second, then I would try and do it.
“So, he knew and he was telling me not to do it, because I think George was probably a bit too fine for that liking.
“But Oscar did his part in trying to help me win and help me get closer to Max [Verstappen] in the championship [in Brazil] and give that opportunity a go.
“I deserve that right to have a chance and that’s how we have to work as a team when one of us has that opportunity. And I return the favour today.
“I don’t think any of us are proud of necessarily winning a Sprint race or we’re also not too unhappy on giving up a Sprint race win.
“But we work together well as a team and I think that’s probably one of our biggest strengths over everyone is how well we work together.
“I don’t think any other team would do such a thing and help each other as much as we’ve done this year for one another. It’s our strength and we’ll continue to do that.”
READ MORE – Lando Norris relinquishes Qatar F1 Sprint win to Oscar Piastri as McLaren take 1-2
