By Ian Chadband
Oscar Piastri has proved himself the perfect team man, gifting his world championship-chasing colleague Lando Norris victory for a McLaren one-two in the Sao Paulo Formula 1 Grand Prix sprint.
Starting on pole at Interlagos, Piastri was still in control at the head of the field in Saturday’s race with two laps left and in sight of the second sprint win of his flourishing career. But the emerging Australian driver followed team orders and let Norris come through and take the crucial victory.
The switch came, much to McLaren’s relief, just before a late safety car intervention, but the Australian driver still managed to hold off one final charge from Red Bull’s championship leader Max Verstappen to finish second behind the Briton.
Piastri’s chances of later completing a brilliant day by shooting for pole in the main grand prix were scuppered when heavy rain washed out proceedings and the teams were forced to reassemble on Sunday morning for qualifying ahead of the afternoon race.
“Oscar drove well. He deserved the win today. I’m not proud of winning a sprint race or any race like this, so I thank Oscar and the team,” said Norris, praising the Aussie for a “great job” in ensuring Verstappen ended up third.
Later, Verstappen was handed a five-second time penalty for a safety car infringement when he was pursuing Piastri, which dropped him back to fourth and meant the Dutchman’s championship lead was cut to just 44 points.
Sao Paulo GP sprint winner Lando Norris (centre) with his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri (left), who ultimately finished second, and Max Verstappen of Oracle Red Bull (right), who finished third but was later demoted to fourth.Credit: Getty Images
Indeed, Piastri was left the toast of the entire team for his selfless display after dominating the race, with engineer Tom Stallard praising him over the radio for being a “massive support to the team”.
Insisting he wasn’t fed up about being unable to celebrate another win in his impressive second F1 season, Piastri shrugged: “The team result was obviously what we wanted.
“It is not as much fun as winning, but I know the position we are in. We have been talking about this for months and this is the first time we have had to enforce it.
“I would have preferred to have won, but it is a sprint race and I don’t have much to fight for in the drivers’ standings.
“We knew this could, and probably would happen, and I am fine with it.”
Piastri got off to a fine start in the 24-lap race, shifting across at the head of the grid to keep Norris in second from the outset, with Verstappen locking up under breaking at the opening corner to cling on to fourth behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
As the race progressed with Piastri always in command, Norris sounded increasingly nervous about when the switch would happen as he badgered his race engineer Will Joseph while his teammate was urged to “give Lando DRS” in order to help the Briton keep Leclerc and Verstappen at bay.
With six laps left, Verstappen went past Leclerc for third, and with two laps to go, Piastri let Norris pass on the run down to the fourth corner, a move which put himself under pressure from the champion.
Still, it looked like a straightforward McLaren one-two until the Virtual Safety Car was deployed after Nico Hulkenberg parked up his Haas.
The VSC period ended on the final lap with Verstappen then aiming a lunge on Piastri, only for the Melburnian to hold firm and for the Dutchman to end up with his penalty.
McLaren team boss Andrea Stella had admitted it would have been better if Piastri and Norris had swapped earlier “but the situation never materialised for this being done in a safe situation.”
AAP with agencies
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