Lando Norris has admitted he was taken by surprise at team-mate Oscar Piastri’s aggressive lap 1 overtake in the Italian Grand Prix.
From the front-row, pole-sitter Norris led on the charge through Curva Grande, but at Turn 4, Piastri moved to the outside and took the lead from his championship-chasing team-mate.
McLaren indicated that “papaya rules” were in force – code for team orders and not to crash – but Piastri drove away from Norris, with the two on a two-stopper.
Ferrari employed a one-stop with Charles Leclerc to take the win, with Piastri second and Norris third with fastest lap to reduce Max Verstappen’s lead to 62 points after his sixth place finish.
Reflecting on the first lap move, Norris conceded he was taken by surprise.
“Of course, because he got past, but I don’t know what I should have done differently, because if I braked one metre later, we probably would have crashed,” he explained when asked if he was surprised by Piastri’s move.
“Well done to Oscar, he did a good job, he got past me and he deserves it.”
As for the race against Ferrari and the one-stop strategy employed by Leclerc, Norris conceded that McLaren was just not able to match it given some limitations on the car.
“Ferrari just did a better race, especially Charles, he did a very good job, so hats off to them,” he said.
“We considered the one-stop, but it was not possible with the amount of graining that I had, so it was a tough one, we knew it would be tight, but just with our car and some of the limitations we have, it just wasn’t possible.
“We knew that it was a possibility, but they did a better job, they had a better car today.
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