Norris 'Not Proud' Of Sprint Victory After Position Swap With Piastri

Saturday, 02 November 2024 at 17:11

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Lando Norris stated he wasn't proud of his Sprint victory at Interlagos Circuit after Oscar Piastri in P1 let him through a few laps before the end of the race.

McLaren Racing F1 driver Lando Norris started the 2024 Sao Paulo Grand Prix Sprint Race from P2 after qualifying 0,029 seconds behind his teammate Oscar Piastri.

The Papaya team has spoken about prioritizing Norris already a couple of times previously due to his Drivers' Championship battle, so it was expected we might see team orders at some point, and they came on lap 22 out of 24.

Nico Hulkenberg's Haas stopped on the side of the track, triggered a yellow flag, and it was clear there would have to be a virtual safety car, so McLaren ordered Piastri to let Norris pass him on the straight between the second and the third corner.

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LAP 22/24 The McLarens swap places! 🔀 Norris leads. Piastri will have to fend off Verstappen #F1Sprint #BrazilGP

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The 24-year-old Briton then brought the victory home, with his Australian teammate in second place, so a one-two result for McLaren. While this is the best possible result for him and the team, Norris suggested he wasn't very happy about the way he won the Sprint race at Interlagos Circuit:

We're fighting for a constructors' [title], and we're fighting for our drivers' [championships]. We want to help the whole team achieve both of these goals.

"Obviously, from a driver's point of view, it puts us in a slightly different position. I'm not proud to win a race like I did today."

"It's not how I want to - I'm not proud of it, basically. So I will work hard to go and do a better job in qualifying later and put myself in a better position for the race."

"We want to avoid it as much as we can. But at the same time we sign up for this. We have to work together as a team. We get told what to do. We have a boss, and we do the best we can to help each other out."