Norris shrugs off Turn 1 brush with Piastri as McLaren keeps the big prize in sight
Lando Norris didn’t flinch. He rarely does. Third place in Singapore was tidy business for McLaren on a night where overtaking was rationed, but the story lived in the first 200 meters: Norris muscling up the inside, glancing off Max Verstappen’s Red Bull, and then ricocheting into Oscar Piastri’s papaya. Cue a sharp intake of breath on the pit wall and a spiky radio message from the other side of the garage.
Piastri’s complaint was quick and clear — “not fair,” “not very team-like” — after he had to catch a slide and flirt with the wall, surrendering the podium place he’d earned on Saturday. But Norris, speaking later, insisted there was nothing dirty in it. The move, he argued, was opportunistic on a damp, low-grip inside line and only looked spicy because his front wing brushed Verstappen first.
“I hit Max, so it wasn’t aggressive on my teammate,” was the gist from Norris, who also leaned on the drivers’ code that’s older than parc fermé: if there’s a gap at lights out, you go for it. He admitted he’ll review the onboard — there’s always something to tidy up — but stood firm that the pass was justified in a race where passing anywhere else bordered on fantasy.
That’s the nuance here. In Singapore, with its drying line and cranky dirty air, positions gained at Turn 1 often decide your evening. Norris had qualified only fifth after a scrappy Saturday, saw open track on the inside of Piastri, and sent it. The tap on Verstappen sent him skating into his teammate; no wing damage, no penalty, lots of heart rates up. And by the flag, Norris had the podium that Piastri started with.
Inside McLaren, this brushes up against the so‑called “papaya rules” — the team’s ethos of let them race, but keep it clean. Andrea Stella didn’t reach for the team orders binder mid-race and won’t start now, but he’s signaled the debrief will cover that first corner in detail over the next fortnight. It’s the kind of meeting where words like margin and risk tend to be passed around the room.
Norris doesn’t believe anything needs to change. Constructors’ title in the bag or not, he says the approach remains open combat, and the FIA clearly agreed in Singapore by keeping their hands off. “Free to race” has underpinned McLaren’s season, and there’s been precious little in 2025 to argue against it — until you have two drivers in a title fight trying to occupy the same apex.
For Piastri, who started third and finished fourth after chasing Norris late on, the frustration was understandable. He’s led this championship for most of the year and, per the current standings, still does — 336 points plays Norris’s 314, a 22-point cushion that tightened by three under the lights. With six rounds to go and three of them sprints, the arithmetic says Norris needs to find roughly 3.7 points per weekend on the other side of the garage to turn the tide.
That’s doable; it’s also tightrope stuff. The first-corner calculation that paid off in Singapore is the same calculation that can turn a title shot into a long walk back to the pits. That’s the tension McLaren now has to live with after locking down the big trophy early: how much rope do you give two drivers fighting for the same crown?
Still, there was a logic to Norris’s argument. Starts are scrappy, especially on a part-wet Marina Bay grid. He launched well, tucked inside to avoid getting boxed in, and found the track’s one honest overtaking chance. He said he misjudged how close he was to Verstappen — the initial contact that set off the chain reaction — but insisted he was always going to end up ahead of Piastri given the line and grip. It’s the kind of racer’s explanation that won’t comfort the guy who copped the knock, but it’s not without merit.
Singapore didn’t give us the clean, sexy duel between the McLarens that this season keeps threatening, but it did signal the heat’s been turned up. Piastri gave his feelings on the radio. Norris fired back with the driver’s creed. The team, for now, is keeping the referee shirt folded in the drawer.
The next stop is the United States, where the track and the sprint format will tempt both to roll the dice again. If McLaren really does keep the rules as loose as advertised, the title may be won not by the bravest move, but by the one that’s just brave enough.
