Oscar Piastri has revealed he is ready to help Lando Norris after the Briton helped him massively at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix last weekend. If it had not been for Norris holding up Sergio Perez, the Australian could have been undercut by the Mexican and then never been in a position to win the race after.
However, since Norris continues to have a sizeable 32-point lead over Piastri, McLaren will want to favor the Briton, who has more of a chance of beating Max Verstappen to the drivers’ title this year. Piastri also understands the same and has agreed to help Norris when asked about it during the Singapore GP press conference. The Australian said,
“Lando is still ahead in the championship and, just to be honest, has a more realistic chance to win the drivers’ championship. But Baku is how we want to go racing as McLaren. Lando helped in Baku. We got it across perfectly of our culture and how we want to go racing. I want to win but naturally, if I can help out Lando’s championship bid, I am happy to help“.
As things stand, Norris is currently second in the championship standings and is 59 points behind leader Verstappen. Meanwhile, Piastri is fourth and is 91 points behind the Dutchman.
“The amount of hard work and pressure that I was under in Baku made it much sweeter”
Oscar Piastri reflects on his second career win #F1 #SingaporeGP pic.twitter.com/GDisH26t8O
— Formula 1 (@F1) September 19, 2024
Although Piastri had agreed to help Norris even during last weekend’s Azerbaijan GP, the Briton qualified only 17th on the grid. Even though Norris gained two positions because of drivers having penalties around him, the Azerbaijan GP was always going to be about damage limitation for him.
With him managing to finish one position ahead of Verstappen, Norris succeeded in that aspect at least. His fourth-place finish and the fastest lap was enough to help him reduce the reigning champion’s lead by three points.
Norris expects no favors in return from Piastri
Even when McLaren revealed that they were ready to impose team orders to help Norris in his championship bid, the Briton made it clear that he would obviously prefer to win on merit rather than have his teammate help him. It is for the same reason that he does not expect Piastri to return the favor to him after he helped him in Baku last weekend.
When asked if Piastri now owes him one, Norris replied, “I wouldn’t say he owes me one. I’m happy to play my part“. However, he did make it clear that seeing Piastri win the race did frustrate him.
“But Oscar taking the win made [qualifying] all the more frustrating because it was horrible and unfair on the sporting side,” Norris added. He believes that had he had a better qualifying, he could have had a better result and improved his chances of closing down the gap to Verstappen even further in the championship.
