Brazil F1 Sprint: Lando Norris ‘not proud’ after Oscar Piastri gifts him ‘crucial’ victory

Australia’s Oscar Piastri has been forced to gift Lando Norris victory as the championship battle with Max Verstappen heats up.

Oscar Piastri gifted Lando Norris the Brazil Sprint win.

McLaren has called on Oscar Piastri to swap places with Lando Norris for the first time this year as the urgency around the championship battle with Max Verstappen ramps up.

Piastri qualified fastest for the Sprint race in Brazil this weekend and was on track to win before he swapped positions with Norris on lap 22 of the 24-lap Sprint.

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Norris claimed eight points for the Sprint win and trimmed three points off Verstappen’s lead in the world championship heading into Monday morning’s Brazilian Grand Prix.

Red Bull’s three-time world champion leads Norris by 44 points in the drivers standings.

Verstappen finished the Sprint in third but was demoted to fourth place by the stewards for breaking virtual safety car rules.

Norris, 24, came home 0.593 seconds clear of Piastri who finished 1.5 seconds ahead of the Dutchman with Charles Leclerc finishing fourth.

Oscar Piastri gifted the sprint win to Lando Norris. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)

The McLaren’s got a 1-2 in the Sprint. (Photo by NELSON ALMEIDA / AFP)

Norris admitted he was fortunate to collect his first career sprint race win.

“I’m not proud of it, but it worked well and as a team we had a good day — and thanks to Oscar,” said Norris.

“He deserved to win, but it was good team work and we had great pace. And we executed it well.”

Fair play Oscar Piastri

You were the true sprint winner there but played the team game 👏

— Matt Gallagher (@MattP1Gallagher) November 2, 2024

“It was a tricky race,” said Verstappen who will already start Sunday’s race with a five-place grid penalty after the engine was changed on his Red Bull.

He added he would be aiming to “limit the damage” to his title defence in Sunday’s race.

McLaren’s one-two success lifted them 35 points clear of Ferrari in the constructors’ championship and ended Verstappen’s run of four consecutive sprint wins this year.

The McLaren team orders may be too little, too late for Norris, who is running out of time to catch Verstappen.

Many pundits have argued McLaren should have let Norris win the Hungarian Grand Prix and had him finish in front of Piastri at the Italian Grand Prix to help him shave the deficit to Verstappen.

Norris and Max Verstappen’s championship battle is going down to the wire. (Photo by Lars Baron/Getty Images)

Rain wreaks havoc on Brazil qualifying

Qualifying for the Brazilian Grand Prix was postponed late on Saturday afternoon local time as persistent rain fell at the Sao Paulo track.

Less than an hour before the start of qualifying, a heavy downpour, accompanied by thunderstorms, swamped the famous Interlagos circuit at Sao Paulo.

After several delays it was confirmed qualifying was postponed until Sunday morning in Brazil.

Sky Sports’ Bernie Collins: “There would be quite a significant gap, presumably four hours or so, between qualifying and the race so the cars can be turned around, get them refuelled and ready for the race.”

If it isn’t possible to have qualifying at all, it’s possible the results of the free practice session will be the starting grid.
That would mean Verstappen would start last, with Norris on pole and Ollie Bearman in third place.

With AFP