Lando Norris has opened up on how he inadvertently caused team-mate Oscar Piastri to crash out of the Formula 1 Sao Paulo Grand Prix Sprint Race.
The Briton led the Sprint from pole position and continued all the way through to take victory, holding off the challenge of Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
Piastri started the race third and held that position until Lap 6, when his McLaren was pitched into the outside wall at Turn 3, after his left-front took on a little too much stagnant water, the rain having fallen in the hours prior to the race.
The crash was quickly followed by Nico Hulkenberg and Franco Colapinto also spinning off into the same barrier, bringing out the red flag at Interlagos.
After the race, Norris remarked on how the weather made his race harder, and how his race run on Soft tyres made the latter stages harder as he fought off Antonelli’s advances.
“Certainly a lot trickier than I would have liked,” he told media including Motorsport Week. “I mean, for both reasons. One, because the conditions were tough.
“Yeah, like the first lap, going up the hill, knowing how much to lift.
“A couple little moments, and then obviously Turn 1 braking always being pretty difficult. And just not wanting to ever kind of take too much of a risk.
“But at the second point, just not being quite quick enough in the second part of the race on the Softs.
“Kimi was quick it was always like 1.2s, down to one, I made a bit of a mistake in [Turn] 4 in one of the laps.
“So, yeah, just didn’t plan for it being quite as difficult as it was today, but we held on. So, yeah, just difficult for many reasons, but that’s the part of it.”
Russell jokes that Norris is the ‘smartest guy’ after causing Piastri crash
As it transpired, Norris took too much kerb than he usually would have on Lap 6 at Turn 3, which loosened the water onto the track.
This left Piastri vulnerable behind, and when touching the water, he was left a passenger as he clipped the barrier and into retirement, giving Norris a nine-point advantage in the championship.
When asked about how he inadvertently caused Piastri’s crash, Norris said: “Yeah, I mean, it’s a kerb you always use in quali. We use it a lot.
“Obviously, when it’s wet conditions like this, you kind of want to stay off all the kerbs. So I ran a little bit wide and I saw the water come onto the track. But yeah, that was it.”
George Russell, who finished third, picked up his microphone and joked: “A little bit like Mario Kart where you throw the banana out behind you. The smartest guy on the grid, this guy.”
READ MORE – Lando Norris takes F1 Brazil GP Sprint victory as Oscar Piastri crashes out
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