Lando Norris gave away his sprint race victory in Qatar (Image: Sky Sports F1)
has revealed that ‘didn’t want him to’ hand over his sprint race victory to due to the intense pressure being applied by in third place.
The 25-year-old was cruising at the front of the field while his team-mate was scrapping tooth and nail to keep Russell behind. Norris played the team game all race long, dropping off to give Piastri DRS and protect the team’s one-two finish.
Then, as the cars rounded the final corner, Norris lifted off the throttle, executing his deceleration with perfect timing, allowing Piastri to take the win while still keeping Russell behind.
With the margins so slim, the pit wall would have been sweating in their seats. Explaining his decision after the race, Norris said: “It was probably a bit closer than what I was wanting, but I planned to do it since Brazil.
“It’s just what I thought was best. It’s probably a little bit sketchy. The team told me not to do it but I thought I could get away with it, and we did.
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Norris handed over the victory to Oscar Piastri (Image: Getty)
“Honestly, I don’t mind. I’m not here to win sprint races, I’m here to win [Grand Prix] races – and a championship, but that’s not gone to plan. But I did the best we could and I look forward to tomorrow.”
The swap makes little difference to Piastri or Norris individually, but retaining their one-two finish was critical for their fight with in the Constructors’ Championship.
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Norris went on to add: “We scored one-two, that’s what we were aiming for today. We’ve got maximum points, so we’re happy. We’re happy as a team, we’ve executed things perfectly, and I think the pace was good.
“I probably could have pushed a little bit more than what I was doing but we wanted to keep the others behind. We did our job and that’s the main thing.”