McLaren driver Lando Norris described his intense wheel-to-wheel battle with teammate Oscar Piastri during the Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix as “fair” after initially feeling he had been pushed onto the grass at high speed.
Norris and Piastri Trade Positions in Closing Stages at Monza
The intra-team fight unfolded over the final laps of the 53-lap race at Monza’s Temple of Speed. Piastri, defending fourth place from Max Verstappen, and Norris, who had passed Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari for fifth, converged on track with the checkered flag approaching.
Norris made his first move on lap 48, sparking a protracted nip-and-tuck duel characterized by battery-driven overtaking. Piastri reclaimed the position on the following lap. With three laps remaining, Norris attempted a second pass into the second chicane. Piastri covered the inside line, prompting Norris to move into a closing gap on the left. As track limits ran out, the reigning world champion placed two wheels on the grass, suggesting over team radio that Piastri had “pushed me off.”
Norris Concedes Piastri Drove Fairly After Review
With the benefit of hindsight and a lower heart rate, Norris quickly conceded after the race that his teammate had done nothing wrong.
“No, it was okay,” Norris explained. “I still need to review things, but I think it’s just the perception of when you’re in the car, when someone’s kind of opening the gap a bit and then kind of goes straight. You get that perception when you’re going at 200 miles an hour, so that’s all.
“But I think what he did was fair, so it’s just when you’re in the moment and you’re half on the grass, you realise how quickly things can end pretty badly, so just in the heat of the moment. But no, from that side it was fine and it was a good battle and a good result from a tough race.”
Team Orders Call for Clean Racing on Final Lap
The McLaren intra-team battle continued onto the final lap, with both drivers receiving instructions from the pit wall to ensure “clean racing.”
Norris bided his time for a decisive move, using the slipstream and preserved battery energy from running behind his teammate to make the pass stick into the Variante Ascari. Piastri attempted to retaliate on the run to the finish line but corrected a significant slide exiting the final Parabolica corner, settling for fifth as the two papaya cars crossed the line in formation.
“It was a good battle,” Piastri reckoned. “It was a lot of back and forth and the last lap, you never really know what to do with the energy. I think we went for different strategies with that and he got past, and I thought I’d have a chance to get back past again but ultimately I just didn’t quite get there.”
Additional reporting by Stuart Codling and Ronald Vording
