An F1 driver’s teammate is usually their biggest rival in the sport and more often than not that is the individual each racer hopes to beat. However, the Qatar GP sprint race on Saturday featured an interesting moment as Lando Norris let McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri pass him on the final lap, and let him clinch the win.
Norris revealed in his post-race interview that he felt the need to repay the favor he received from Piastri in Brazil. Back then, it was the Australian who let Norris overtake him for the sprint race win. However, it is pertinent to note that Piastri’s move of letting Norris by was to help the Briton’s drivers’ championship challenge.
With the Drivers’ Championship now sealed, several experts believed that it was unnecessary for Norris to let Piastri win. Former F1 driver Jolyon Palmer revealed after the sprint race that the Aussie was not particularly happy to be handed a win from his teammate.
When asked by presenter Laura Winter on F1TV what he made about Norris’ decision to defy team orders and take the risk to give Piastri the win, the former Renault driver said, “It was interesting to give up a win in such a showy way”.
30 points between them. 88 points still up for grabs.
McLaren slightly widen the gap in pursuit of the title ↔️#F1Sprint #QatarGP pic.twitter.com/4N1nJQZETO
— Formula 1 (@F1) November 30, 2024
He then added, “None of them were happy about it after“. Palmer believes that even though it was generous of Norris to return the favor to Piastri, he believes that the Australian driver would have preferred to earn the win just like the 25-year-old was not particularly happy when he was handed the win by the Melbourne-born driver back in Brazil.
Nevertheless, it has brought a lot of appreciation toward both drivers’ camaraderie with their boss Zak Brown showering praise on their teamwork.
Brown lauds Norris and Piastri for being “great teammates”
McLaren CEO Brown referred to Norris and Piastri as “great teammates” because of the way both have helped each other at several points this season. Brown said that the way he saw Norris’ decision to hand Piastri the sprint race win in Qatar was that “Oscar helped Lando out a little bit in Brazil and I think Lando said thank you”.
However, Brown did make it clear that all credit must go to Norris for his generosity as there were no team orders from McLaren. Instead, the team had advised Norris to hold position, with Mercedes’ George Russell being in close proximity to them.
Thankfully, it all went to plan for the Briton as Piastri crossed the line just 0.136 seconds ahead of him. However, with Russell finishing less than 0.5 seconds from the race winner Piastri, Norris will most likely not consider pulling off such a move ever again as he could have easily looked silly and received criticism for it.
