Oscar Piastri revealed that he and McLaren team-mate Lando Norris agreed to swap positions in the Formula 1 Sprint at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix ahead of lights out.
Piastri out-qualified Norris during Friday’s Sprint Qualifying session to head a McLaren front-row lockout on Saturday’s Sprint grid at Interlagos.
A cagey race played out with Piastri leading until Lap 22 of 24, before swapping positions with Norris on the run-down to Turn 4, moments before Virtual Saftey Car was deployed.
That allowed Norris to take the maximum 8 points from Saturday’s Sprint and narrow the gap to Championship leader Max Verstappen to 45 points.
“We spoke about it before the race and when we were going to swap,” Piastri said post-sprint.
“The gap never really got big enough to do it at a convenient time, but that was always the plan at some stage.
“I think we we pulled it off as well as we could, it got a bit close with Max [Verstappen] under the VSC.”
READ MORE – McLaren team orders grant Lando Norris Brazil F1 Sprint victory
Piastri, a racer through and through admitted that bowing to team orders was “not as much fun as winning,” but understood what part he had to play given he is all but out of the Drivers’ title fight.
“I know the position that we’re in,” he said.
“We’ve been talking about this for months now and this is really the first time that we’ve had to enforce it.
“I would have preferred to have won, but again, it’s a Sprint. It’s the same points for the team and you know being realistic I don’t have much to fight for in the Driver’s standings.
“We knew this was something that could and probably would happen at some point, but I was fine with it.”
Tomorrow ‘could be completely different’ says Piastri
Exclaiming, “it’s a Sprint” opens up the possibility that Paiastri might think differently when it comes to Sunday’s GP at Interlagos.
Piastri explained “It could be completely different” on Sunday.
“It’s very rare that you have exactly the same scenario. We’ve spoken for months now about working together and doing what’s right for the team and that includes both of us.
“We’ll see what scenario we have in qualifying and then we’ll see what situation we’re in during the race.
“We’ve probably spent months planning a million scenarios now, but until you actually get into the race and see what you have it’s very tough to do.
“I think we’ve shown multiple times in both directions that we’ll help each other out when we need to.”
Norris, the lucky party inheriting victory on Saturday said “I’m not proud to win a race like I did today.
“I have to work hard to go and do a better job in quali later and put myself in a better position for the race.”
READ MORE – Lando Norris ‘not proud’ to win Brazil F1 Sprint amid McLaren team orders
