Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri banged wheels on the first lap of the Singapore Grand Prix won by the smooth-running George Russell.
And so the gloves are off. Bear hands are at each other’s throat. The friction is an inevitability as old as sport itself and proved that McLaren’s valiant attempts to contain enmity between their two world championship contenders could never be contained.
They tried hard at McLaren to keep the peace. They established Papaya Rules, the blueprint by which they were meant to duel fairly. Not crashing into each other was No1 on the list, but putting the team ahead of the man was its underpinning credo.
That observance was blown apart – for now or for all time – at Turn Three under lights at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.
Norris, who made a bold start from fifth, was vying for higher rankings. He tagged the back of Max Verstappen’s Red Bull, just a glance, and it caused him to bang wheels with Piastri. Norris was running on the inside at the time and, if he made a mistake, which he did, it was a minimal one. The stewards concurred – no action, no fingers pointed.
The officials deliberately and expressly show more leniency on the opening lap than on any other. They want to encourage competition, and this was a ‘racing incident’ by any rationale appreciation.
George Russell is embraced by girlfriend Carmen Mundt after winning in Singapore
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri banged wheels on the first lap of the grand prix
Piastri had a right to feel hard done by, though. But that is tough cheese, mate. As it should be, too. McLaren ought not to over-engineer friendship, which can only be faux and short-lived – the full radio exchanges to follow explain that contention.
In the end, the contretemps gave Norris third place, behind Verstappen but one ahead of Piastri. This trimmed Piastri’s championship lead to 22 points, down from 25. The irrepressible Verstappen is 63 back, down from 69. There are 174 points on offer across the six remaining races.
The lid came off the kettle in Piastri’s cockpit. ‘So are we cool with Lando just barging me out of the way? What’s going on there?’
The response came from his race engineer Tom Stallard: ‘We’re looking at it. Let me get back to you.’
The stewards then investigated the incident.
Stallard came on with their verdict: ‘No further action from the stewards. As a team we can see that Lando has to avoid Verstappen so we won’t take any action during the race. We can review further afterwards.’
Piastri countered: ‘Mate, that is not fair. I’m sorry, that is not fair.’
Stallard, again: ‘Oscar we will have the opportunity to review together afterwards. Focus on this race, mate. We can still get a good result here.’
Norris (left) ended up in third and trimmed his team-mate’s championship lead to 22 points, while Mercedes’ Russell cruised to victory
Piastri was fuming and ended up being stuck in fourth place on an unhappy evening
Piastri: ‘Yeah, but if he has to avoid another car by crashing into his team-mate then that is a pretty **** job of avoiding.’
Further misery for Piastri struck after 26 laps when his rear left was slow going on in his only stop. He was stuck there for 5.2sec. He fell further behind Norris, marooned in fourth place.
Norris, driving a good race, his dander up, climbed all over the back of Verstappen.
The two men have fallen out of friendship in recent months and remarks Norris made over the weekend about Verstappen being a fortunate recipient of his genes – racing dad Jos and karting star Sophie – went down like cyanide in the Dutchman’s camp.
Norris was unable to pass the immovable Verstappen, though right on his exhaust. A good day for Norris, though, and for Verstappen.
But back to the intra-McLaren rivalry and the history that went into it. Piastri was furious that strategy calls favoured Norris in Hungary, handing the Englishman victory. Piastri did not say anything publicly about the chicanery, but anger was written all over his face that day.
He had even more reason to feel aggrieved in Monza last month when McLaren team principal Andrea Stella ordered them to swap places after Norris was delayed in a pit stop. He had every reason to be angry.
Stella tried to smooth over the creases. The team first, man second philosophy delivered a a consecutive world constructors’ title today. So who can say that they have miscalculated? It’s just that the limits of fraternity can only be stretched so far. As we saw with Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet, Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost.
Now, ironically, McLaren have just appointed a new director of communications. He starts work in a few days with responsibility among other aspects to present an image of harmony. To borrow from the film Airplane! he’s chosen a bad day to give up his old job.
Russell backed up his effort to take pole and won from the front in a dull race
In other subjects, running a race of his own, serene and untouchable for Mercedes, Russell is due especial praise for having come back from a virus that hit Azerbaijan a fortnight ago, when he finished second in a statement of steel.
The hardest of his weekend’s work was done on Saturday, when he took pole. Eleven of the 16 winners here have won from the front. It was a dull race, a procession really, the Englishman holding a hand over it a couple of years after he crashed here. It was his second win of the season.
A late brake failure lost Lewis Hamilton a place to the other Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, the Briton finishing seventh and well removed from the brouhaha ahead of him.
