Guillaume Marion, Media365, published on Saturday November 2, 2024 at 3:45 p.m.
This Saturday, Lando Norris (McLaren) won the sprint race of the Brazilian GP thanks to a team order and therefore took two points from Max Verstappen (Red Bull), who finished 3rd.
This is a great gift that could count in the fight for the title at the end of the season. Indeed, starting in pole position this Saturday, Oscar Piastri seemed well on his way to winning the sprint race at the Brazilian Grand Prix, but he had to let Lando Norris overtake him two laps from the finish. The Australian then perfectly respected his team's instructions and therefore allowed his teammate to take two points back from Max Verstappen (Red Bull), who finished behind the two McLarens. As a result, the British driver is only 45 points behind the world champion… for the moment. Because the latter is under investigation because of an attempt to overtake on Piastri during the virtual safety car. Whether or not he could be penalized for this remains to be seen. “It was a complicated race,” said Verstappen in any case after the sprint race.
Norris: “Piastri deserved this victory”
For his part, Norris was logically happy but was also a little embarrassed by this offering from his teammate. “ I'm not very proud of that but we worked as a team. I thank Oscar (Piastri). We did good teamwork, this is the result we were hoping for. Oscar deserved this victory but we did what we had to do. We had a good pace, let's hope we have the same during qualifying earlier and in the race tomorrow (Sunday). It would have been difficult (to overtake Piastri on a regular basis),” admitted the one who will try to continue to put pressure on Verstappen this weekend in São Paulo. A little later this Saturday, the drivers will be on track again at Interlagos during qualifying. Note that Pierre Gasly (Alpine) ranked 7th in this sprint race.
