Both McLaren single-seaters dominated the 100 km Formula 1 sprint at the Interlagos circuit.
Photo: Miguel Schincariol / AFP / AFP / Profimedia
The two fastest pilots of Saturday’s sprint in Brazil – the winning Lando Norris and the second Oscar Piastri.
McLaren pilots Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri confirmed their best positions from Friday’s qualifying and came to the finish line for the first two places. World Championship overall leader Max Verstappen of Red Bull finished third, ending his dominance of the shortened race this year. Verstappen’s lead over Norris in the championship was thus reduced to 45 points.
During almost the entire race, Piastri was in first place, followed by Lando Norris. He believed that his teammate should let him in front of him and in the 7th round he pushed for the team direction.
“I don’t know what we’re doing here. I thought we talked about that,” Norris said over the radio. But the team decided not to put pressure on Piastri for now. In the 16th lap, Norris received an answer from the pits.
“Given how close Leclerc is in third place, we’d like to keep that order until the last lap.” The changeover of the McLaren drivers finally came on the 22nd lap.
Moments later, the virtual safety car was activated due to Nico Hulkenberg’s exit, which lasted until the last 24 laps. After the restart of the race, Verstappen tried to attack Piastri, but he could not get to the second place.
Norris would prefer to win the race without the help of his teammate. “I’m not proud of it, Oscar deserved the win today, but as a team we did what was needed,” Norris said.
Verstappen was satisfied with the speed of his car. “It was a tough race, but I had good speed. Charles made a few mistakes, I took advantage of that and got ahead of him.”
The Brazilian motoring weekend will continue with Grand Prix qualifying and the main race will take place on Sunday at 18.00.
Source: sportweb.pravda.sk
