Letting Piastri pass ‘was Lando’s decision

McLaren’s senior management confirmed that they did not ask Lando Norris to hand his team mate Oscar Piastri the sprint race win.

Norris led the Losail sprint race every lap of the way before allowing Piastri to take the chequered flag first.

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown confirmed after the sprint race that the team had not intended to always swap positions at the end.

“That was not the plan all along,” he admitted to the official F1 channel. “The plan all along was to try and finish one-two. It was a close race that was 19 laps of no [finger]nails. That was Lando’s decision. And good on him.”

Piastri had let Norris pass him to win the sprint race in Brazil four weeks ago. “Lando and Oscar have been great team mates and I think it just showed how much they were helping each other and, ultimately, racing for the team,” said Brown. “Oscar helped Lando out a little bit in Brazil and I think Lando said ‘thank you’.”

Norris was asked to back off strategically during the race to keep his team mate inside his DRS range to help Piastri fend off George Russell behind him. The team also ran with a draggier rear wing to benefit their performance through Losail’s corners, team principal Andrea Stella explained.

“We had a rear wing configuration which was good in the corners but made us a little bit slow in the straights, especially with this headwind,” Stella told Sky. So the race today required a bit of collaboration between our two drivers with Lando supporting Oscar through the DRS, which was executed very well – very brilliant driving by Lando to help Oscar defend from George.

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“When it comes to the swap at the end, Lando was very willing to return the favour that Oscar did to him in Brazil. We actually wanted to release the pressure off Lando by saying on the radio that we were happy to finish in this order, but Lando managed to find the opportunity to return the favour.

“Once again it shows the collaboration, the unity, the cohesion that we have at McLaren is a point of strength and is the foundation to keep staying in this quest for the championship.”