Lando Norris says he’s “not proud” to have won the Sprint at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix as a result of teammate Oscar Piastri moving over for him.
Piastri qualified on pole position for the Sprint ahead of Norris and the pair ran first and second throughout the race, despite the close attentions of first Charles Leclerc and later Max Verstappen. With Norris in the fight for the drivers’ championship, Piastri was instructed to let his teammate through in the closing stages, and Norris says it was a sign of excellent teamwork.
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“I’m not proud about it but we worked well as a team together so I thank Oscar,” Norris said. “We’ve done a great job as a team, today was the result that we wanted. Oscar deserved it but we’re doing what we have to do, so I thank him and the team. We had great pace, so I’m looking forward to qualifying and the race tomorrow.”
Norris was on team radio telling McLaren he was going to try and overtake at one stage as he shadowed his teammate, but admits his track position made it challenging to stay close to Piastri.
“It’s tough. It was kind of like yo-yoing a little bit. Like I’d catch up, then I’d drop back, and catch up. It’s just the dirty air costs you a lot of lap time. I felt a bit quicker, but I couldn’t pass at the time, but I felt good. I think we were clearly quicker than the guys behind, but it’s just difficult in the Sprint race like this to know how much to manage and push and that kind of thing, but we executed it well.”
Piastri said it wasn’t a simple race, and that McLaren will need to find some steps ahead of qualifying for the grand prix to be stronger on Sunday.
“It was a bit tricky, to be honest,” Piastri said. “Very bumpy as we know and the racing line was incredibly narrow, you missed it by a tire width and you were in all sorts of trouble. A great day for the team and a lot of points. I think we learned a lot for the race tomorrow as well, and I’m happy.
“I think (I’m) optimistic (for the race). I think the pace was OK but the Ferrari was very quick at the start and Max was very quick at the end, so let’s see. I think we’ve got a few things we want to try and improve a bit for qualifying this afternoon and for the race tomorrow, but I think we’re in decent shape.”